


If You Believed In Me

by JRW9699



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Established Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-05 23:33:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 78,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12804795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JRW9699/pseuds/JRW9699
Summary: 5 years ago, Oliver Queen died in a shipwreck. 6 months ago, 'The Hood' appeared in Starling City. So, when Oliver Queen finally returns home there's no reason for anyone to think he could be the same man taking on the worse of Starling City's criminal contingent...no one apart from the one woman to capture the heart of the infamous playboy before the island.Cross-posted on FF





	1. Chapter 1

**If You Believed In Me**

**Rating: Mature**

**Characters: Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak, John Diggle, Tommy Merlyn, Thea Queen, Laurel Lance, Moira Queen, Walter Steele, Robert Queen (Cameo) and Sara Lance (Cameo)**

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Arrow or any of its related characters.**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

"Do you have to go?" The dark-haired girl whined, her arms wrapped around the neck of the boy before her.

"You know I don't have a choice, part of the whole 'keeping my trust fund and being able to see my sister'  _deal_ is that I at least pretend to be interested in QC. And depressingly that includes going on this trip to Hong Kong with my dad." He leant down and placed a brief kiss to the girl's lips. "I'm sorry, Felicity, you know I'd rather spend the rest of the summer with you but I really haven't got a choice."

"I know Oliver; I'm just selfish and want you all to myself." Felicity flashed him a seductive grin at that and pulled him down into a slow passionate kiss.

Ollie groaned as he pulled away and his eyes fixed on her, and Felicity noticed how visibly his eyes darkened. "I'm so going to make you regret that when I get back. I'm gonna take a week out of school to come visit you."

"Oliver Queen don't you dare." Felicity dropped her arms from his neck and gave him a stern look. It had taken a lot of work, but between Felicity's raw stubbornness and the ultimatum given to Ollie by his parents, Ollie had finally started really putting some effort into his studies. There was no way in hell she was going to let him put all that good work to waste.

"Oh, come on 'Lis, I'm already a three-time Ivy League drop out, a fourth wouldn't do me any more harm." He grinned.

"It'd do this relationship plenty of harm, I thought part of your parents being cool with  _us_ was because you've been doing really well at school?"

"I hate that you're always right." He grumbled.

"It's part of my charm." Felicity retorted with a smirk.

"And it's such a wonderful charm, 'Lissy." A female voice came from behind them.

The pair turned to see a pair of girls, a blonde and a brunette, both dragging suitcases with them. Felicity threw them both as convincing a smile as she could, leaning in to hug Sara while Ollie embraced the brunette, then visa-verse. The quartet quickly exchanged the usual pleasantries before Ollie spoke up.

"We'll be setting off in 5, take your stuff into the Gambit and I'll meet you on board."

Felicity continued to hold the forced smile as the two girls walked past them and onto the boat. She wasn't usually a jealous person, but seeing her boyfriend getting ready for a month-long boat trip with two other incredibly  _hot_ girls was a little unsettling. If she didn't have so much work to finish, Felicity probably would have been on the boat with them. Ollie must have sensed her tensions because his voice suddenly cut through the silence the couple had fallen into.

"Felicity, you're being paranoid," She knew his was trying to be reassuring but the look Felicity gave him must have told Ollie otherwise. He turned himself around and placed his hands on her shoulders. "If I was planning on using this trip to cheat on you with Sara would I have let you know she was coming or that I would let her bring her  _girlfriend_?"

"I know Ollie, I just..." Felicity trailed off, for the first time she was lost for words.

"I love you, Felicity Smoak."

It wasn't the first time he'd said it but it still made Felicity feel giddy. He had an effect on her that no one else could create, it was just one of the many reasons that she had fallen for him. Even after over a year and a half of them dating Ollie was still able to make her heart do backflips just by smiling at her the right way.

"I love you too, Oliver Queen."

Ollie leant down and kissed her again briefly, they were interrupted by someone clearing their throat behind them. Ollie pulled away from Felicity and she turned to see his mother climbing off the boat onto the pier and his father stood on the deck.

"That's enough of that don't you think, Oliver? You need to be getting on that boat."

With a small nod to his mother, Ollie turned back to Felicity. The brunette was still a little afraid of Moira Queen, and clearly Ollie was too. The matriarch had initially been incredibly hostile towards Felicity, and the younger woman couldn't blame her. Felicity didn't even want to imagine the number of gold-diggers Ollie must have brought home before he finally decided to become a one-woman guy.

"You're sure I can't convince you to come with me?" He tried for what felt like the hundredth time.

"No way," Felicity shook her head. Ollie had been trying to convince her to come on this trip with him since Robert had told him it was happening, and Felicity had refused outright since the start. Of course, that hadn't stopped him from asking again-and-again, Ollie wasn't exactly accustomed to not getting what he wanted. "I much prefer to keep my feet on the shore."

"As do I, dear," Moira cut over them. "Now, Oliver hurry up and get on the boat, you have a schedule to keep to."

"Mom, isn't the whole point of owning a boat that we can leave whenever we want?"

"Listen to your mother and get on the  _yacht_." Robert Queen spoke up, somewhat scolding both mother and son for disrespecting the vessel he was so proud of by calling it a boat.

"Alright I'm coming," Ollie groaned. "I'll see you in a month, Felicity."

"You'd better."


	2. Chapter 2

 

_The name of the island they found me on is Lian Yu. It's Mandarin for "purgatory". I was stranded there for 5 years. I dreamt of my rescue every cold black night since then. For 5 years, I have had only one thought, one goal...survive. Survive and one day return home. The island held many dangers. To live, I had to make myself more than what I was, to forge myself into a weapon. I returned home 6 months ago as the man who will bring justice to those who have poisoned my city but today I return as the son, the brother and the boyfriend who was shipwrecked. My name is Oliver Queen._

XXX

From the hospital room overlooking the city, Starling looked almost tranquil but over the last 6 months Oliver had come to know his city anew, and he knew it was anything but tranquil. He hadn't been able to be... Oliver supposed  _alive_  was the right word. When he'd returned to Starling the first time, he'd been home but he hadn't been Oliver Queen, he'd been 'The Hood'. It was a calculated move, but he had known people would eventually connect the dots if he and his alter-ego had appeared in Starling at the same time. There was one person who, more than any, he worried could make that connection, if anyone could figure out his secret it would be  _her_. Voices from the corridor brought Oliver back to the current situation, his mother was stood outside the room, and he could faintly hear her conversation with the doctor through the closed door.

"20% of his body is covered in scar tissue. Second-degree burns on his back and arms. X-rays show at least 12 fractures that never properly healed."

Oliver hadn't realised quite how much damage had been done to him over the last 5 years, but it had been necessary to make him the man who would save his city. The torture he'd gone through, the losses he'd suffered, it would all be worth it if the plan he had forged to honour his father worked. There was enough corruption in Starling City that 'The Hood' was never short of targets, and the criminals he'd been fighting were already starting to fear the vigilante.

"Has he said anything about what happened?" He hadn't heard it for so long but he still recognised his mother's voice.

"No. He's barely said anything. Moira, I'd like you to prepare yourself. The Oliver you lost...might not be the one they found."

Oliver knew they were right, his mother, Thea, Tommy...Felicity. They would all be expecting him to be Ollie, the eccentric heir to the Queen fortune who died at sea, not the man who had been forged in the fire of Lian Yu. Part of him was beginning to wonder if resurrecting Oliver Queen was the right decision, he could have carried on as 'The Hood' without needing to bring back his former self. The money he would have access to as Oliver Queen was the reason he had convinced himself of but perhaps, subconsciously if nothing else, he was returning in the hopes that his family may be able to remind him of who he had been before, to maybe find an end to his mission. The door clicked open behind him and, if he hadn't already known who was entering, Oliver's defences would have already been up.

"Oliver?" His mother's voice quivered slightly behind him.

Inhaling deeply, he turned facing his mother for the first time in years. She hardly looked older, that was the first thing Oliver noticed about his Mother when he took in her appearance. The second thing Oliver realised was that he hardly felt a thing as he stood there, any other person should be beyond emotional, brimming with tears at seeing their mother after so long, but Oliver hardly felt a thing. In that moment, Oliver realised that he would have to play up to his part a lot more than he had planned, he hadn't considered how difficult it would be to re-forge the emotions he once had.

"Mom." His voice was hoarse, not the way it had been the last months, it seemed appropriate given that he was probably expected to not have spoken to many people, if anyone at all, over the last years.

A faint smile began to form on Moira's lips and Oliver approached her, seeing the tears forming in her eyes.

"Oh. My beautiful boy." Moira was on the precipice of tears as she wrapped her arms around Oliver, the embrace saying a million things to both of them.

Oliver held his mother for as long as he thought would be deemed appropriate for a castaway returning to his family for the first time in five years, he then separated himself from Moira as gently as he could. There should have been more for him to say, he had been gone for over five years after all, and yet Oliver couldn't find any words.

" _Oliver_?!"

_**An hour earlier** _

_Oliver Queen is alive_.

Felicity had dropped her mandatory evening glass of wine when she saw the broadcast.

At first, she hadn't believed it, it had been five years. Five years of believing he was gone, of trying to unsuccessfully distance herself from the name 'Queen' and of trying to move on from the best relationship of her life. Felicity's thoughts were suddenly, though understandably, beyond disjointed. Of course, it was good he was back, it was more than good, it was a miracle but why did she feel so... _un-good_. She wasn't upset at Oliver's return, yet at the same time it was painful, it meant reliving all the memories she had tried to push far, far down.

Oliver coming home would mean she would have to once again deal with the endless media reports, paparazzi all over her and of course the Starling City gossip networks exploding all over again, which would basically mean the internet would become her worse enemy for a few weeks. Not the she ever wanted that to happen, Felicity loved the internet but when she and Ollie Queen were involved, and for a long time after his ' _death_ ', the internet hated her. Felicity knew she couldn't actually blame the internet itself, but it was the people who used it that were the problem.

_How did that saying go; 'nothing is inherently good or evil'?_

Felicity was torn from her thoughts by the ringing of her landline. Shaking herself into reality she headed to the phone, stepping around the shattered glass and spilt wine. Looking at the display she saw the caller ID and it was exactly as she had dreaded. Picking up the phone she steadied herself and answered.

"Moira, I heard the news is he alright?"

"I don't know, my driver is taking me to the hospital as we speak. The doctors are going to release him tomorrow morning but I want to see him first. You should come."

Felicity felt her nerves rise at the question. "Oh...I'm really not sure, this feels like it should be a family thing."

"Oh nonsense, Felicity you are practically family."

It wasn't quite the truth, when Oliver had disappeared Tommy and Thea insisted that Felicity stayed at Queen Mansion for a while and she had eventually agreed. It had been tense, Moira had had to deal with having her missing-and-presumed-dead son's girlfriend living in her home, while Thea had been glad to have someone around whose shoulder she wasn't afraid to cry on. Tommy had eventually admitted to her that the main reason for his insistence was that he had feared Moira would have done everything she could to distance the Queen's from Felicity. Though all the press attention they had received after she had moved into the mansion had more or less made Felicity into an honorary Queen, much to Moira's initial disappointment.

After all that, Felicity knew arguing with the older woman was futile. Moira had the most amazing case of selective hearing Felicity had ever encountered; Moira Queen only ever heard what Moira Queen wanted to hear. The Queen matriarch had tutored Felicity in what it meant to be a part of the family and over time she had developed a different side of herself, the one that appeared whenever she was in public, the persona she had taken to calling 'Felicity Queen'. A name which, in reflection, was entirely inappropriate, especially given that, back when they had been a couple, Ollie hadn't seemed one who'd want to marry, even given how intense their relationship had become. After her brief internal battle, Felicity gave in to Moira's request, accepting that she had no choice in the matter and that, if she was being totally honest, she desperately wanted to see her...maybe  _boyfriend_  wasn't the right word to use.

"What time should I be there?"

"As soon as you can, I'm sure Oliver will be delighted to see you."

Felicity wasn't sure if after all this time he would be but it was another of Moira's wisdoms she was forced to accept.

_XXX_

"Oliver?!" Felicity called out as she turned into the hospital room.

As soon as her phone call with Moira had ended Felicity had set about making sure she looked presentable, on the assumption that there would be an incredible number of paparazzi around the hospital. Thankfully a driver, courtesy of the Queen family, had picked her up and so the paparazzi had been kept away upon her arrival. The dress code for meeting your castaway boyfriend for the first time in five years wasn't particularly well defined, so Felicity had settled on a grey pencil skirt and a floral blouse; it was unlikely that any pictures were taken of her so hopefully it wouldn't make a difference.

When Felicity laid eyes on Oliver she quickly ran into the room and threw her arms around him, pulling him into a tight embrace, hardly noticing Moira was in the room with them. The overwhelming surge of emotions Felicity was feeling stopped her from realising Oliver's hesitation when she jumped into his arms.

The eldest Queen heir was taken aback when the short blonde had run into the room, as much as Oliver had seen images of his former ( _or was that current?)_ girlfriend, he was yet to see her face-to-face. He hadn't planned on seeing her until the following day at the earliest, so her showing up in his hospital room threw him off his game, especially when she all but jumped into his arms.

After a brief hesitation, Oliver returned the embrace, his arms curling around Felicity and pulling her into him. Having her in incredibly close proximity to him stirred emotions Oliver had counted on being long since buried, though he couldn't deny that his affections for her hadn't dwindled in the slightest over the last years. Oliver inhaled deeply, realising that even after five years Felicity still insisted on using the same lavender scented shampoo; a smile began to tug at the corners of his lips as he reminisced.

"It's good to see you too, Felicity." Oliver mumbled into her hair.

Oliver felt Felicity shiver at the sound of his voice, unsure of whether the reaction was a good or a bad one he looked up at Moira.

"Mom, could you give us a minute?"

"Of course, Oliver, I'll just be outside." Moira spoke as she headed out of the room, Oliver could tell she wasn't best pleased that her son was asking to be left alone with his girlfriend after only being home a few hours but at that moment it was the least of his cares.

When the door closed Oliver gently separated himself from Felicity, his hands finding their place on her shoulders. He took in her appearance meticulously, his eyes absorbing in every detail as if it were the last time he would ever see her again. He let out an amused sigh as he took note of her new blonde hair and apparent affection for glasses, despite her instance on wearing contact lenses for as long as he had known her when they were in university. The lack of jet black clothing was also a shock, and despite that, Oliver had to admit her new choice of attire seemed to suit her much more, though he couldn't quite put his finger on why.

"You wear glasses now." It was a stupid place to start and he knew it, but Oliver had no idea what to say.

Felicity let out a mix of a laugh and a sob. "Five years and you wanna talk about my fashion choices?"

"No. I..." Oliver wasn't sure what to say to her. "I'm sorry."

A bitter laugh escaped her lips and the suddenness of it stunned Oliver a little, leaving him to silently observe Felicity as she began to talk.

"Sorry? Oliver you've been gone for five years.  _Five years!_ Years that I had to find a way to cope, find a way to live after the only man I've ever loved...died. You were dead...and I...I didn't..." Tears began to roll down Felicity's cheeks as she spoke.

Without hesitation Oliver took a step forward and closed the gap between them, pulling Felicity into his arms again. He held her close, feeling the wetness on her cheeks through the thin shirt he had donned.

"I know, I'm sorry...I'm sorry."

They lost track of how long they stood there, just holding each other as Oliver whispered endless apologies into Felicity's ear, though it was long enough for one of the nurses to come in and tell them that visiting hours were over and that she would be able to see Oliver again in the morning.

_XXX_

It felt strange to Oliver, abnormal certainly, seeing the stately home appear in his vision. True, it wasn't the first time that he had been here in the last 5 years but he hadn't been inside the home as Oliver Queen. His mother had been suspicious at his insistence to carry the trunk he'd brought from the island with him but she hadn't mentioned anything, much to his relief. Oliver followed his mother as she pushed through the doors into the mansion.

"Your room is exactly as you left it, never had the heart to change a thing."

Simply being back in the mansion felt foreign to him, the plush carpets, and expensive chandeliers, all of it. Oliver had spent the better part of the last 5 years sleeping rough, sometimes without even a blanket or a fire to keep him warm; these were luxuries he barley remembered. Russia had somewhat reminded him of this part of his old life, though the comforts provided by the Bratva barley matched up to those of the Queen estate.

"Oliver." The deep voice he just heard wrenched him from his thoughts. "It's damn good to see you."

Oliver observed the man for a moment as the memories of him came back. Taking the man's hand, he shook it, lightly and without using too much of his grip. "Walter," he spoke slowly, "good to see you too."

It had taken him a little longer to remember Walter than his mother had expected apparently, given the apprehensive look she gave him in that brief pause. Oliver had only vague memories of the British man, they had met on a few occasions, between Oliver's visits to QC and the galas his parents had made him attend it had been inevitable. Though the two had never had a significant conversation, nothing beyond basic pleasantries and some talk about the company.

Observing the look that crossed between the two people in front of him Oliver resisted the urge to roll his eyes, his mother and Walter must have thought him an idiot. Then his eyes found a woman whom he had sorely missed the last 5 years, gently pushing past the other two he crossed the room in a few strides.

"It's good to see you, Raisa." He spoke with a smile.

He could see the look of happiness and warmth on the woman's face and couldn't help the smile forming in his lips.

"Welcome home, Mr. Oliver." She beamed, the thick Russian accent bringing back memories of the previous year. Raisa's smile spread even more, before she turned her attention slightly to his mother "Mr. Merlyn phoned. He wants to join you for dinner."

"Wonderful."

Oliver barely had time to register what was said when he heard the click emanating from above. It was the sound of a door and, as far as he knew, there was only one other person in the house. He slowly moved away from Raisa and his mother and headed for the stairs.

"Oliver? Did you hear that?" The voice of his mother was something he didn't want to pay attention to right now.

His eyes fell on her as his sister walked down the stairs. She had changed so much, Oliver didn't want to believe it but she had. She looked so much more grown up than he remembered and she'd definitely inherited the best of their parent's looks. Even just looking at her in that brief moment Oliver could tell how much she had changed; there was a maturity around his sister that was blindingly evident. Perhaps, Oliver thought, that was what the trauma of his and their father's death had done to Thea. He knew from personal experience how differently people could cope with grief and, for Thea, it had given her a maturity beyond her years.

"Hey, sis." Oliver smiled.

He watched as Thea bounded down the stairs the smile of her face spreading wider.

"I knew it, I knew you were alive." Thea was in his arms as she finished speaking "I missed you so much."

"You were with me the whole time." Oliver spoke, his voice a whisper.

He had smiled, nodded and been Ollie Queen to everyone he had seen since he returned, but embracing his sister in the hall of his childhood home had reminded Oliver of whom he had been before the island. What he had said to Thea was possibly the most honest thing he'd said since his return. After briefly asking to be excused Oliver had headed for his room, hoping that he could find some sanctuary there.

_After 5 years, everything that was once familiar is now unrecognizable. The face I see in the mirror is a stranger._

_XXX_

Oliver had forced himself to come home as more than just the man who would save Starling City and now, stood looking at one of the last remaining photographs of his father he knew he had made the right choice; these people needed him, his family needed him. Hearing the front door click open behind him Oliver prepared himself to be faced once again with the woman he had abandoned 5 years ago.

"What did I tell you? Yachts suck."

The voice of Tommy Merlyn was one Oliver still knew all too well and tonight it was a relief to hear it. With an exaggerated smile, he turned to face his best friend; a strange word to use to describe Tommy after what had happened in Hong Kong. Tommy, Oliver realised, was going to be the easiest part of his old life to return to. They had been an inseparable duo before the island and, just from Tommy's entrance, Oliver could tell how little his old friend had changed.

"Tommy Merlyn." Opening his arms Oliver hugged his old friend.

"I missed you, buddy. Although," Tommy pulled away "there's only one person who might have missed you more."

Tommy stepped to the side and out of Oliver's view as a blonde stepped through the door; he knew it was her straight away.

"I'm gonna go say hey to your mom." Tommy said, sensing the two would want to be alone.

Oliver hardly registered what Tommy had said as he observed the woman before him. Felicity wore a flowing purple dress that fit her a little more snugly than perhaps was entirely necessary and Oliver was left to wonder as to whether that was for his benefit or if Felicity still felt the need to impress his mother.

"Hi, Oliver." She spoke timidly.

"Felicity." He breathed, still a little thrown by her choice of outfit.

Before Oliver could register what was happening Felicity had taken a great stride forward and wrapped her arms around him, the embrace tighter than he had anticipated. Oliver leaned in and returned the embrace, feeling the warmth of her hands on his back and her breath against his ear. He inhaled deeply and found that even the scent of her perfume was something he could find comfort in. Felicity had been one of the few thoughts that kept him going the last few years; it was because of her he had made it through all those cold nights and painful beatings. As they embraced Oliver felt her lips begin to move by his ear.

"You know, when I said you needed to get a real hobby, self-reanimation isn't really one to go for without telling your girlfriend first." She lightly pushed the pair apart. "Sorry I just...I'm really glad your back and it's all a major shock. I'm just glad we'll be able to talk or whatever or maybe you don't even wanna talk. I mean it's been 5 years but... You didn't come home just so you could listen to me babble; I thought I'd got over this. And it's gonna stop in three...two...one."

Oliver couldn't help but smile, he had missed her more than he had thought. He stepped to the side and indicated to the dining room.

"We definitely need to talk," He said before he could stop himself. "but later and alone."

The smile that grew on her face was obvious to him, even though she tried to hide it. "I'd like that."

Oliver followed Felicity into the dining room and took his seat at the head of the table, opposite his mother, with Felicity to his left and Tommy on his right. They ate while Tommy worked on catching him up on what had happened in the last 5 years. Oliver felt strange listening to Tommy talk as if he had merely missed a weekend because of a bad hangover but he was also grateful that no one had mentioned  _it_  yet. The awkwardness radiating from Felicity was obvious to him and Oliver had to resist the urge to reach out and take her hand under the table. Instead, Oliver quickly met her eye, giving her a warm smile, a silent reassurance that everything was fine. Regardless of what they had been in the past, and what he still felt for her, he had to emotionally distance himself from her else she would prove too much of a distraction. Oliver hated that he could be so cold about these decisions, but it was necessary.

"Ok. What else did you miss?"

Oliver was glad that Tommy was there to diffuse the tension, while he had done plenty to check up on what his family and Felicity had been up to in their public lives over the last 5 years, Oliver was unsure of what they were all like behind the closed doors of Queen Mansion.

"Super bowl winners... Giants, Steelers, Saints, Packers, Giants again. A black president, that's new. Oh, and Lost, they were all dead...I think."

At the mention of Lost, Oliver caught Felicity throwing Tommy a ' _seriously?_ ' look; trust Tommy Merlyn to bring up the show about people stranded on a deserted island. Oliver had been observing everyone else eat their food as he hardly touched what he had in front of him, after living off so little for so long the food before him was far too much.

"What was it like there?" Thea spoke up.

She genuinely sounded curious, not in any way malicious. The tension building in the room was obvious but Thea was too innocent to realise what she was asking of Oliver so he simply took a breath and did his best to ward of the memories.

"Cold."

Oliver hoped that answer would be blunt enough to keep Thea from asking anymore questions.

"So, Felicity," Walter spoke up in an attempt to diffuse the new tension "I'm hearing rumours that your department has started work on a new hush-hush project."

Oliver had spent a little of his last 6 months in the city checking up on his family, Felicity had done well for herself. Since his...disappearance, Felicity had finished her stretch at M.I.T and had started work at QC's IT department. In the three years since she had progressed to head of the department. Many had put the promotion down to Felicity's former relationship with Oliver and that the Queen's were paying her in promotions to keep quiet about something. Despite all that, Oliver knew that it was down to her hard work and determination, the two things that she had used to help him get through his fourth Ivy League college.

"Mm," Felicity replied. "It's only a theory at the moment but we're working on developing a new security program that might even be able to defend against a skeleton key. Incredibly experimental but my lead programmer thinks he can do it."

"That sounds wonderful, you're certainly trying to lead the field Miss Smoak, and our investors always do love your projects." Walter smiled.

Oliver knew Walter had been somewhat of a mentor to Felicity, Thea had told him how well the pair had got on during their brief conversation earlier. Oliver had done his best to avoid asking how everything had changed while he was away; he almost wanted everything to have remained the same so this experience wouldn't be any harder than it already was.

"Speaking of, I was hoping to swing by the office."

No one at the table had been expecting it and Oliver could tell. They all thought he had returned as Ollie Queen, Tommy's surprise was the most evident though.

"Well, there's plenty of time for all that. Queen Consolidated isn't going anywhere."

Oliver nodded sensing that Walter was trying to keep him away from QC, for a reason he couldn't identify.

"So, I was thinking; Tomorrow, you and me, we're doing the city. You've got a lot to catch up on." Tommy spoke up, expertly finding a way to diffuse the tension.

"Sounds like a great idea." Felicity chipped in and Oliver smiled at her before turning to Tommy.

"Alright then." With a sigh, he turned back to his mother. "And while we're out...maybe I should start looking for a place of my own."

Oliver saw his mother stiffen at the mention, obviously connecting this suggestion to him just coming back; she probably thought that this was some form of PTSD.

"I don't see why; your room is exactly as you left it and you have free run of the mansion."

"That's the problem, that's not me anymore."

"Well you'll have to stay here while you find somewhere..."

"You could always stay with me." Felicity spoke up again.

Oliver was unsure if Felicity's suggestion was because she genuinely wanted Oliver around or because she wanted to spite his mother. He couldn't deny that he saw the appeal in living with her but maybe it would be a little too much a little too soon. They had been dating for a year and a half before the island and it wouldn't be easy, for either of them, to live together under different circumstances than they had been under before. Though it would definitely mean that Oliver would be away from the mansion and Felicity would be unlikely to question why he was leaving her place at dusk and not returning until dawn, from what Oliver could remember she was a heavy sleeper.

"I'd like that, we've got plenty to discuss. I don't have much in the way of what I'll need..."

"Tonight then?" Felicity cut over him.

Oliver was now sure she was doing this to irritate his mother, and for some reason he felt a surge of pride for Felicity.

"Yeah, I'll go grab my things as soon as we've finished eating."

His mother responded with a small nod, obviously not wanting to create any more tension between the two. Oliver began to wonder what it was that was making his mother so adamant that he stayed in the mansion. As he was thinking Oliver saw Raisa in the corner of his eye, carrying a bowl of fruit, and he saw her slip. Without hesitating he caught the bowl and steadied Raisa.

"I am so sorry Mr. Oliver."

The Russian slipped past Oliver's lips before he could stop himself, instantly thinking that Raisa would appreciate it, without even realising that nobody knew he spoke the language.

The whole room turns to look at Oliver, each of them in shock at what just occurred.

"You speak Russian?" Tommy and Felicity spoke in perfect unison. It was enough to bring a small smile to his lips.

"I didn't realize you took Russian at college, Oliver."

"I didn't realize you wanted to sleep with my mother, Walter." The tense silence returned to the room.

Oliver knew he'd gone a little too far but was frustrated that his mother had thought him so idiotic that he wouldn't have noticed that the man who hadn't left her side was also living in Oliver's home. Everyone looked down at their plates while Oliver held Walter's state.

"I didn't say anything." Thea spoke up.

"None of them did, they didn't have to." Oliver defended the other people in the room without hesitation.

Walter and his mother hadn't been subtle about their relationship since Oliver had returned and still they had expected him to remain oblivious. Sure, before the island he probably wouldn't have noticed the interactions between them but that was a long time, and a lot of pain, ago.

"Oliver..." His mother took Walter's hand. "Walter and I are married, and I don't want you to think that either one of us did anything to disrespect your father."

"We both believed that Robert, like you, was, uh, well...gone."

Oliver offered a nod of acknowledgment and "its fine" though it was clear to everyone in the room he was anything but.

"May I be excused?"

The only response he got was a nod from Moira, at which point he rose straight to his feet and began to head for the door.

"Don't forget about tomorrow, buddy." Tommy added as Oliver walked out.

With a curt nod to his friend, Oliver headed to his room to gather what little belongings he would need for the night.


	3. Chapter 3

 

Felicity was nervous; Oliver had been able to tell from the moment he accepted her offer to stay with him when they had been at the mansion. Even now he could remember all of her numerous nervous habits; she kept looking at him in the corner of her eye, biting her lip whenever their eyes met and she hadn't stopped fidgeting with the radio since they got in her car. The uneasiness was more awkward for Felicity than the tension at the manor and it was obvious. It made Oliver wish he could find a way to make her more comfortable around him but after 5 years he knew things between them couldn't be the same. The expensive BMW was a step up from the small mini Felicity had been driving when Oliver had left Starling and the pride he felt that she had been able to get this far was an unusual sensation for him. The pride he felt was an unquestionable assurance that he had made the right choice in taking up Felicity's offer to stay with her, at least until he found a place of his own.

Oliver was aware that staying in the mansion under the watchful eye of Moira Queen and the veritable army of security she employed was a bad move, especially if he wanted to be able to go out in the middle of the night and return home in the early hours of the morning. While he definitely needed to find a place where there would be no one to ask questions about his actions, Oliver knew he could count on Felicity, for a while at least. Oliver had come to a realisation during the car journey that made him feel guilty about moving in with her:

Felicity was his perfect cover story.

They had been a couple before the island and it was no secret, the press had managed to get plenty of photos of them over the year and a half they had been together, but now he was back people expected him to fall straight into his old routines. That was exactly what he was doing with her. When they had first become a couple every press outlet in Starling had assumed Felicity would be the latest in a line of relationships ruined by Ollie Queen and they had all been amazed when, a year later, they were still together. Felicity had made him a better person back then but somewhere, deep down and even though he'd never admit it, Oliver hoped she might do the same again for him now.

After what felt like an age of silence Felicity pulled her car off the main road and into an underground parking lot. She had given the man sat at the security booth a hello and he had waved them through with a polite:

"Good Evening, Miss Smoak."

With that the entrance door rolled open and Felicity drove them through the basement and to the closest parking space she could find to the lift. The fluorescent lights above them flickered a little as she parked and she turned off the engine, sitting back in her chair she threw Oliver a nervous smile.

"This is us."

Felicity was visibly kicking herself for saying that and Oliver couldn't help but share her embarrassment. Doing his best to push past the urge to say 'it's fine' Oliver simply offered a forced smile and got out of the car. Reaching into the boot to pull out the green crate he had brought with him, along with a duffle bag containing a few clothes, he could feel her eyes on him. She was observing his actions, trying to see how much he had changed the last 5 years. Oliver hoped she would never find out how much he really had. Of course, she might have been considering why he had come back from a desolate island in the North China Sea with luggage; it was a fair question which, thankfully, no one had asked yet. When he stood up the question was burning behind her eyes but Felicity left it unsaid, only making Oliver all the more certain that this had been the right choice. Oliver followed her in silence as she walked to the elevator and pulled out her key card, pressing it against the sensor. With a soft  _beep_  the doors opened revealing a, surprisingly, fancy elevator; wooden walls and carpeted floor.

_This was my mother's doing,_ Oliver told himself.

He knew Felicity, so he knew this wouldn't be the kind of place she would have chosen to move into of her own accord. With a gesture for her to enter first Oliver smiled, stepping into the elevator behind her. Oliver watched as she pressed the penthouse button and the lift began to move. That made this mind up, this was definitely his mother's work. He had noticed that the building was well guarded, he had counted at least 10 cameras in the parking lot and there were two in this lift. It would certainly prove to be a bit of an issue when he was trying to sneak out at night but Oliver had already plotted a route through the parking lot which would avoid all the cameras.

"So how long did it take for my mother to convince you to buy a penthouse?" Oliver asked, trying to get a more comfortable air around them.

"Not as long as I would have liked. After your dea..." Felicity caught what she was about to say but immediately continued "disappearance...the press was all over me even after I moved into the mansion, I had to move out eventually and Moira suggested this place. The security's great and the paparazzi don't stand a chance of getting any pictures of me through one way glass, 20 stories up, which is really great so I don't have to constantly worry about looking picture perfect. Your mother's training still sticks with me, 'always assume there's a camera watching you.' Thankfully in a penthouse with one-way glass windows there isn't anywhere for a camera to see me...or  _us_  now I suppose. I'm sorry; I babble when I'm nervous."

The ping of the doors opening was enough to get Felicity to keep quiet. As the doors began to open, Oliver turned to look at her with another forced smile.

"I remember."

How could he not? It had been oh-so endearing when they had met, the way he could get her to ramble just by smiling at her the right way or letting his fingers trail along her arms when she wore anything sleeveless. Though the memory was somewhat unwanted, that particular memory was an unusual feeling and it was a feeling which distracted him. Distracted was something Oliver Queen could not be. The smile that had risen on Felicity face when he had said he'd remembered was one which she hadn't done a very good job of concealing, despite her obvious attempts.

"After you." Oliver motioned, realising the doors were open.

The elevator didn't open straight out into the penthouse but to a, relatively, small entrance way with a coat/shoe rack was all that separated the two. Oliver followed Felicity into the large main room, the crate of his most prized possessions clamped tightly in one hand. On one side the wall was glass and they could see the lights of Starling city spread across the horizon, the rest of the walls were a bright white and adorned with colourful paintings. Felicity shed her shoes and coat as she walked, her whole posture clearly relaxing now she was in the safety of her own home. Felicity headed over to the kitchen area of the room and pulled out a bottle of wine, filling a large glass with the red liquid.

"You want a glass?" She asked without looking up.

"No, thank you." Alcohol wasn't something Oliver indulged in often, especially without some serious stress to motivate him into it.

When Felicity turned back to him, Oliver lifted the crate up slightly and spoke.

"Point me to the guest room so I can drop this down?"

As soon as he finished speaking Felicity's face dropped, which confused Oliver. He could see some internal anguish just from her eyes and was curious to know what she was thinking.

"Oh God, Oliver I'm so sorry,"

Now he was even more confused.

"I didn't even think, I don't really have a guest room, not a one with a bed anyway. I just...you're back and I kinda just assumed that..." Felicity trailed off.

"We'd still be sleeping in the same bed?" He finished for her.

"Yeah," She nodded. "Ugh I'm such an idiot."

Oliver couldn't blame her; everyone was thinking the same as her. 'Ollie's back and let's just pretend the island never happened'. It wasn't her fault; Felicity thought she had for her old boyfriend back, not the cold-hearted killer that the island spat out. Placing down the crate on the floor Oliver took a few steps towards her.

"God, this day is too much," Felicity muttered, filling her glass back up. "I guess it's not every day your boyfriend comes back from the dead."

He offered her another of his forced smiles. "I get it, I just got resurrected." He attempted to lighten the mood between them.

Felicity reaction hadn't been at all what he expected. Her expression suddenly became stoic, her lips pursed and Oliver briefly feared for his safety.

"Don't do that." She said bluntly.

"Do what?"

Oliver was a little taken aback by her shortness with him, his confusion was a little too obvious and Oliver was sure Felicity had noticed. Being spoken to so bluntly by Felicity was enough to feel a twang of guilt pull at Oliver's conscience, no matter what had changed for him in the last 5 years his feelings for her hadn't dwindled and the mask had slipped, even if it had just been for a second. Before he left Starling, Felicity never did blunt; as far as Oliver was aware she wasn't capable of speaking for a short enough length of time to even qualify as blunt. So, the fact that he was stood before a woman he'd once professed to being in love with, and who'd just called him out on his crap, threw Oliver a little off his game.

"Look Oliver, I appreciate that you're hurting and I get it if you don't want to talk about what happened, but drop the bullshit, don't treat me like in other people." Swearing wasn't something Felicity did much of from what Oliver could recall, so it made the harsh truth of what she was saying hit home all the more. "Lie to you mother, your sister, your best friend that's fine just don't lie to me. It might have been five years but I can still tell the difference between the Oliver I knew and the 'Ollie' everyone else knew."

Oliver was stunned, Felicity had seen straight through every single one of the forced smiles and little lies he'd told to keep everyone happy. He had thought that everyone would attribute any oddities in his behaviour to the fact that he had just returned to civilisation after 5 years alone, somehow Felicity still knew him too well to fall for it. Looking back, he shouldn't be so surprised, Felicity had always seen straight through him, right from when they first met.

"Felicity, I..." Oliver wasn't sure how to respond "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," she took a step forward and placed a hand on his arm. Oliver could feel the shock that went through her when she felt the muscle there. "Would you rather have some time alone?"

Felicity Smoak was full of surprises tonight. She had been the first person to think that he might not want to be surrounded by people asking questions or trying to brush off what had happened. He was amazed by Felicity; she was going to be far more of a distraction than he had previously thought.

"I...I don't know." Oliver admitted honestly as he could. "Felicity I spent 5 years alone, without any of this. I don't wanna be alone anymore."

It was a risky move, to attempt this sort of re-connection with her and Oliver knew it, but he also knew Felicity could see straight through him and he couldn't keep up the lies for long. The way Felicity's smile spread across her face at that was unmissable and Oliver couldn't help but smile too, almost as if nothing had changed between them.

"Okay, well, being as we ended up leaving before we actually managed to finish dinner..." Felicity headed over to the fridge and pulled a small leaflet from it. "Chinese?"

A breathy laugh escaped Oliver lips at her comment, reaching out to take the menu as he did. Oliver looked down at the small piece of paper in his hands, observing the red ink marking the top corner and felt the involuntary swell of emotions within him.

"You've still got this?" The words flew from his mouth before he could compose himself.

"Yeah, you know I'm pretty sure I'm the only reason that place is still open five years down the line." She replied with a smile.

Tracing the ink with one finger, Oliver was incapable of responding. His memories wandered back in time nearly 6 years as he traced the words with one finger.

' _Oliver_

_Last night was incredible, though maybe avoid cooking and try a takeaway next time?_

_Lissy xx_ '

"So...same as always?" Felicity smirked, her phone already in hand.

XXX

The contagious laughter of the giggling blonde consumed Oliver as he felt her head collide with his shoulder. Unconsciously his arm wrapped around her shoulder as the pair reminisced together.

"And then Tommy said..." Felicity could hardly speak through her laughter.

"I knew we should have turned left!" Oliver finished for her, his baritone laughter cutting across hers.

Their laughter subsided and Felicity looked up at Oliver, his arm still around her shoulder.

"Have I told you recently I think you're incredibly handsome?" She slurred a little.

Oliver swallowed hard as his eyes met hers. Attempting to brush off the remark he reached across and took the half-empty wine glass from her hand, placing it on the table amongst the now empty takeaway boxes.

"And I think you have drunk far too much wine."

Felicity instantly sat upright and folded her arms like a child who'd just been told off by their parents.

"Meanie." She pouted.

"Come on Lissy," Oliver spoke, using her old nickname as he got to his feet. "let's get you to bed."

With no effort at all, Ollie pulled the blonde to her feet, smirking a little at her confused look.

"Okay..." She muttered timidly, and Oliver's smirk grew wider as he put an arm around her and lead Felicity to her bedroom.

Pushing through the door, Oliver's grip on Felicity loosened as she leapt across the room onto her bed. With a roll of his eyes Oliver grabbed a set of pyjamas from the walk-in-wardrobe and set them down on the bed, before turning his back.

"Get changed, Lis'"

Oliver only heard thuds and groans behind him for a few moments before she spoke.

"Why've you turned your back, it's not like you haven't seen all this before."

He bit his tongue before he could reply. ' _Because if I saw you I wouldn't be able to stop myself, and you wouldn't stop me either._ '

"It's fine; I'm done anyway." Her voice sounded again.

Oliver turned around to see Felicity already under the covers and a pile of clothes thrown against the wall. With a smile, he took a step back.

"Goodnight, Felicity."

"What? Ollie where're you going?"

"To sleep on the couch?" It seemed like the obvious solution to him, given the lack of another bed in the house.

"No no no." Felicity slurred, climbing from the bed and grabbing his hand, trying to tug him back towards the silk sheets.

"Felicity what are you doing?" Oliver spoke with amusement.

"You've been on an island for 5 years; I'm not letting you sleep on a couch on your first night home."

Oliver stopped in his tracks, and Felicity almost tumbled backwards trying to continue pulling him.

"You know; I'm not sure that's a great idea."

"Why? Because we used to sleep together when we slept together?"

Oliver was convinced that had made more sense in her head so instead simply nodded.

"Ollie we're both adults, I'm sure we can share a bed without doing the dirty." She laughed, falling back into the bed.

"I don't actually have a choice, do I?"

"Nope."

Oliver sighed heavily. It was Felicity's turn to smirk wildly.

XXX

Felicity was woken up thunder that was far too loud and a throbbing in her head. She jolted up from her bed with a sharp breath and looked around. Instantly she was aware Oliver wasn't next to her and panic rose within her. Another strike of lighting alerted Felicity to a shape stood but the window. Reaching out she quickly grabbed her glasses from the nearby table and pushed the bed-covers off her body. Getting to her feet Felicity took a curious step towards the figure that could only be one man.

"Oliver?" She questioned tentatively.

Oliver quickly spun around, and fs could help but hunk he looked surprisingly menacing, the harsh shadows making his figure look all the more imposing. As Felicity took in his features she could see a neutral yet somehow panicked look in his eye, as if he were expecting some kind of attacker as opposed to the entirely unthreatening blonde that was stood before him. Felicity saw the expression of panic quickly fade from his face, replaced by one of guilt.

"Hey, sorry I didn't mean to wake you." His voice was soft and he seemed sincere.

"It's okay, you're still awake? I'd have thought you'd be making the most of getting a good night's sleep after everything you've..." Felicity caught what she was about to say and stopped herself from continuing.

"Couldn't sleep." Was his stoic response.

"Anything I can do?" Felicity asked, almost hopefully.

"It's just..." Oliver paused with a sigh "after 5 years of roughing it I guess a real bed is too comfortable for me."

Felicity had no real idea how to respond to that other than to offer a sympathetic smile, knowing that whatever Oliver was going through she was here to help him.

"Come back to bed, you'll need to rest up if you're heading out with Tommy tomorrow."

"Felicity, I..."

"Please, Oliver, just try, for me?" As soon as she finished speaking Felicity saw Oliver's expression mellow.

"Alright, for you."

With a smile, Felicity climbed back into the bed, placing her glasses back on the table. When the bed sunk beside her, signifying Oliver's presence she instantly relaxed, somehow feeling safer for his proximity to her. Closing her eyes Felicity felt herself begin to drift off into a comfortable sleep.

"Goodnight, Felicity." Oliver spoke through the darkness as he pulled the bed-covers over his abdomen. He waited in the blackness for a reply that never came and chuckled at the realisation that the blonde was already fast asleep.

As Oliver settled himself in, trying to find a more comfortable position on the all too soft mattress he felt a sudden warmth on his chest. Glancing down his eyes could make out that Felicity had subconsciously wrapped her arm around him and hugged into his side. With a smile across his lips, his eyes drifted shut and for the first time in 5 years, Oliver Queen slept a whole night without being plagued by nightmares.


	4. Chapter 4

 

"Your funeral blew."

Tommy's voice dragged Oliver out of his train of thought. Ever since he woke up that morning he hadn't been able to stop thinking about what had happened with Felicity the night before. At some point in the night Felicity must had rolled off him as Oliver had awoke some hours before the blonde to find she was no longer snuggled up to him. Despite the lack of her presence on his body Oliver had still had the best night of sleep he'd had for the better part of 5 years and that was something which astonished him. Was the emotion he still felt towards Felicity really powerful enough to drown out the demons he'd gathered? Oliver's mind finally caught up with what Tommy had said and he turned to look at his friend, the 'Ollie' persona clicking into place.

"Did you get lucky?"

It was a question to which Oliver already knew the answer, Tommy Merlyn didn't attend any sort of gathering without getting 'lucky'.

"Fish in a barrel. They were so sad..."

"No." Oliver groaned over his friend's smug response.

"...and huggy. And I am counting on another target rich environment for your welcome home bash."

"At my what?" Oliver was a little taken back by Tommy's suggestion of what sounded like a party.

"You came back from the dead. This calls for a party. You tell me where and when. I'll take care of everything."

"You sure about that, man?" Oliver asked, he knew that the party would be happening one way or another so it was best just to accept it.

"Of course, you're definitely having a party. So, what'd you miss the most, steaks at the palm, drinks at the station, sex with Felicity?" Tommy wiggled his eyebrows at Oliver.

"Oh God, Tommy. Not cool." Oliver cringed at the question.

Tommy laughed at Oliver's response before continuing. "What? You know I'm right, the way you two were before you'll be sleeping together in weeks at best, if you haven't already. You haven't, right?"

Oliver rolled his eyes as he spoke "No, Tommy, I did not sleep with her last night."

"Damn, guess I owe Thea that hundred." Tommy bit his tongue and Oliver shook his head, hardly surprised at his sister and his best friend placing a bet on his sex life. "So, what do you wanna see first?"

"Laurel." Oliver's response was simple but it was the truth, he needed to see her to explain himself.

"Man, are you sure you wanna open that wound this early on?"

XXX

The CNRI office wasn't where Oliver had expected to find Laurel, she'd been in law school when he had left Starling and by now he had expected her to be a big-shot lawyer with her own firm. So, finding her in a small office building in the Glades was certainly a surprise. Oliver had known that he would have to see her at some point after his return and the guilt had been eating him up ever since he'd set foot in Starling. Even if it hadn't been directly his fault Oliver still blamed himself for agreeing to take Sara with him on the Queen's Gambit. Now he was stood beside her, walking down the street outside the office.

"You went to law school. You said you would." It was a dumb place to start but Oliver didn't know how to say what he wanted to.

"Yeah. Everyone's proud." So, she was a little bitter that much was obvious but Oliver was glad she was even willing to talk to him.

"Adam Hunt's a heavy hitter. You sure you want to get in the ring with him?"

_What are you saying, you idiot?_

Hunt was on the list, Oliver knew that much and if Laurel was targeting him then maybe Adam Hunt should move up the Hood's list, probably right to the top. Oliver was definitely beating around the bush but he still didn't know where to begin his explanation.

"Five years and you want to talk about Adam Hunt?"

"No, not really." Oliver stopped walking so he could face Laurel "I just wanted to apologise, to tell you not to blame her."

"How could I, Ollie? You know I spent so long trying to find a way to make it your fault, to blame you. You know what I found out? It wasn't her fault or yours. Sara decided to get on that boat with you; she'd been doing well at school so dad let her. Don't blame yourself, my dad is doing enough of that for the three of us."

Oliver was completely stunned; he had expected Laurel to hate him, to blame him for Sara's death. It was hardly a surprise to him that Detective Lance was blaming him, Oliver knew full well that he hadn't been his and Tommy's biggest fan back in the old days, and the man had been more than reluctant when Sara asked to join him on the Gambit. Oliver still couldn't tell Laurel that Sara made it to the island, he had promised not to, now he understood why she was so insistent and he had to honour that promise.

"I just...I need to know something." Laurel continued.

"Of course."

"When she died, did...did she suffer?"

The memories that washed over him then we're almost too much to cope with. Oliver's mid was filled with seeing Sara getting dragged under the water on the Amazo, hearing her scream for his help and he'd failed.

"No."

It wasn't a lie, but Sara had suffered for almost two years before hand. Before Oliver could register what was happening, Laurel was hugging him and he could hear the faint sound of her sobs.

"Thank you."

He heard her voice muffled against his chest. Oliver's arms went out and wrapped around Laurel, pulling her into his chest to console her. Oliver wasn't sure how long they stood like that, with Laurel wrapped in his arms and him muttered consolations into her ear. Oliver heard her sharply inhale before pulling away from him, reaching up to wipe a tear off her cheek as she did. Laurel offered a sad smile, one which Oliver returned as honestly as he could.

"I've never cried in public like that before," Laurel smiled "probably not good for the whole 'tough as nails' lawyer thing I've got going on.

"Oh, well if the people you're up against know you half as well as I do, they'd have every right to be terrified." Oliver chuckled, attempting to restore a little normality.

Laurel laughed back and he could tell it was honest, and not forced like his. "I'm not sure whether I should consider that a compliment or an insult, Ollie."

"It was a little of both." Oliver smiled.

Laurel mirrored it as she spoke. "That sounds about right. Well I have got a job to get back to." She took a step backward. "Say hi to Tommy for me."

Oliver stood for a moment and watched Laurel walk back towards her office. He couldn't help but feel pride for her, that she had made it so far over the 5 years he had been gone. With a contented sigh, Oliver turned and headed towards where Tommy was stood, a bewildered expression marking his face.

"Did you really think it would be that bad, Tommy?" Oliver asked.

"Yep, Laurel was really pissed when you first...you know, but I didn't realise how much she'd changed her mind about you." Tommy began as they turned the corner. "But at least we took care of that. Now we can make up for lost time. If you're not too sick of fish, I suggest we find some leggy models and eat sushi all day. What do you say?"

After his conversation with Laurel and Tommy's idea to go and find models to eat sushi with, even though the Merlyn heir knew he was in an almost-relationship, Oliver was distracted. It was the only explanation which he could agree with to explain what happened next.

As Tommy finished his question the screeching of tires rang out from behind them. With the van quickly approaching both Oliver and Tommy spun to investigate, covering for the emergence of the two masked men from behind them. The sound of a dart being fired whistled through the air and, seeing his friend drop through the corner of his eye, Oliver turned again but not swiftly enough to prevent his attacker from getting another shot off.

Feeling his consciousness slipping away Oliver collapsed to the ground, using the rear-end of Tommy's car to support himself. As the last dregs of energy left his body, Oliver was able to see an innocent bystander being gunned down before him and decided then that these men were dead.

_XXX_

Being once again sat in the luxurious confines of the Queen home, with detectives questioning him, was a stark juxtaposition to what had just happened to Oliver. What had just occurred at an abandoned building in the Glades shouldn't have felt like home more than the building he was currently sat in did. Oliver knew how to fight, how to kill. He knew the exactly how much pressure was needed to break a man's neck, or just the right amount to leave them paralysed for life. He could have left those men alive of course, they'd probably have been too scared to ever talk, but he couldn't do it, Oliver Queen was trained to kill and that was what he had done.

After what had happened over the previous day Oliver didn't feel guilty in the fact that he had enjoyed being able to go toe-to-toe with a criminal, especially one that had tried those pathetic intimidation tactics and who were so obviously only hired muscle. It was strange for him to have truly enjoyed the feeling of crushing a man's throat with a wooden chair, or how satisfying the sharp breaking of a neck sounded but the guilt was outweighed by the knowledge that Oliver had done what was needed and had, in a twisted way, enjoyed inflicting that pain. Perhaps that made him a bad person, but Oliver had long ago given up with trying to decide if his actions were inherently good or bad. All Oliver needed to know was criminals needed stopping and he was the one who could stop them. At that point a thought pushed its way to the front of his mind.

Felicity.

He imagined what she'd think of him if she knew what had really happened. Right now, Felicity, Oliver's family and the detectives were being told the story of how 'The Hood' had swooped in and saved the pair of billionaires. Somehow Oliver knew that Felicity would figure out the truth if she questioned him more vigorously when they were alone but he had to rely on the hope she wouldn't.

_Nobody can know my secret._

That's what Oliver has said to the hired goon before snapping his neck and he knew that had to be the case for everyone, including Felicity. She couldn't know, ever. If Felicity did ever figure out the truth she would resent him for it, of that Oliver was sure, he wouldn't blame her of course. No, how could he? Even if he didn't feel guilt for his actions, he felt guilt for lying to her. Not to Tommy, not to his mother, not to the police. But to Felicity.

"So, that's your story?" Detective Lance questioned, obviously not believing the story. "The Hood saved you? I'm sorry Mr. Queen but that is a little hard to believe, over the last 6 months The Hood had targeted and attacked Starling's 1 percenters. Why would he change his M.O now?"

"I don't know, find him and you can ask."

"Yeah," Lance began, turning his attention to Tommy. "What about you, did you see The Hood?"

"I just saw...movement." Tommy was still somewhat out of it, he clearly hadn't got any better at recovering from the effects of drugs over the last 5 years. "Everything blurry, I was kinda out of it."

"Yeah. It's funny, isn't it? One day back and already somebody's gunning for you. Aren't you popular?" Lance continued, his attention returning to Oliver.

It was then Oliver realised that Felicity's hand was on his arm. He had been sat on the couch with Tommy to his right and Felicity on his left, acting as a barrier between himself and Lance. At some point during his story she had placed her hand on his upper arm, no doubt in an attempt to make him feel more relaxed and Oliver couldn't help but to internally smile at the gesture.

"Were you able to identify the attackers, detective?" Felicity spoke up, sensing his unease at Lance's comment and taking the attention away from Oliver.

"Scrubbed identities and untraceable weapons, these guys were pros." It was the other detective, Hilton, who had replied.

"We'll see about scrubbed identities." Oliver caught Felicity mumble, it would had been inaudible to anyone else in the room but, even if it wasn't for his attention being focused on her, Oliver had heightened all of his senses over the last 5 years.

"Yeah. Well, they probably figured you'd pay a king's ransom to get your boy back or a Queen's ransom, as it were. After all, a parent would do anything to keep their child safe." Lance continued his not-so-subtle jabs at Oliver.

Despite accepting Laurel's forgiveness, Lance's comments still stung, because Oliver did blame himself for what happened to Sara. So, he sat there and took whatever Lance threw, Oliver at least hoped that would make the older man feel better.

"I don't find your tone appropriate, Detective."

"If Oliver can think of anything else, he'll be in touch. Thank you, gentlemen, for coming."

Despite his initial resentment, Oliver had to admit that his mother and Walter worked well together. They had both jumped to his defence without hesitation, even with his harsh comments to the both of them.

Lance's bitter laughter reeled Oliver back into the conversation that was taking place.

"Your luck never seems to run out, does it?"


	5. Chapter 5

"Felicity, you're making a drama out of nothing."

"Nothing?! Oliver, you just got kidnapped and tortured by masked psychopaths and you were subsequently recused courtesy of Starling's number one vigilante. I mean he's Starling's only vigilante but that's not the point."

Oliver let out a heavy sigh as they pair exited the main doors of the Queen mansion. The 'non-couple' as he had internally dubbed them, had been arguing over his abduction. While Oliver was trying to play it down as a simple ransom attempt, Felicity seemed to suspect his ruse, and Oliver knew he was on a losing footing. As they walked into the open and the bright sunlight struck his face, Oliver took notice of his mother, who was stood with Walter and some other man he didn't recognise.

"Oliver, I want to introduce you to someone..." Moira began.

The older woman briefly indicated towards the other man.

"John Diggle. He'll be accompanying you from now on." The Queen matriarch concluded.

"Mom, I don't need a babysitter." Oliver knew his protests would be futile, he fully understood how incredibly powerful his mother's selective hearing was.

"Darling, Oliver's a grown man and if he feels like he doesn't need armed protection..." Walter moved to Oliver's defence.

For a brief moment, Oliver appreciated Walter's interruption and realised that he was defending Oliver against his own wife, for that the Queen heir was extremely grateful. The two hadn't been exactly close before the island, but given Oliver's reluctant engagements with Queen Consolidated he knew the older man well enough.

"Yes, I understand but this is something I need." Moira fought back, her stern expression telling Oliver and Walter that there was no discussion to be had.

"Oliver, your mom's right."

With a surprised look, Oliver turned to Felicity who, for whatever reason, was supporting his mother. Both Moria and Walter also wore looks of shook at the blonde's words.

"You could have been killed, who's to say they won't try again?" Felicity added.

"Lis..." Oliver attempted to argue back.

"Don't you 'Lis' me, this is serious Oliver. We'd all feel a lot safer knowing there's someone protecting you. Well...someone who isn't a hooded vigilante."

The irony of Felicity's statement almost made Oliver laugh. His new bodyguard wouldn't be able to protect him anywhere near as well as he could protect himself without worrying about giving away his secret.

"Fine, if it'll make you feel better Felicity, I'll do it." Oliver gave in to the pleas of the woman beside him.

"Thank you," the smile that grew across Felicity's lips was impossible to miss. "I've gotta go back to work, I'll see you at home?"

_Home_.

The resonance of that word within him was impossible for Oliver to ignore. Felicity had called that 20th story penthouse their home and, even after only that one night, Oliver could almost agree with her. He hadn't come back to find a home, he'd returned to Oliver Queen's life for the limitless resources available through the family name. Yet here he was, one day back and already recreating his life with the woman whom he had once professed to love...the woman he might still love. Oliver had to shake his head to dismiss those thoughts.

_This isn't the time._

"Yeah, I'll see you later." He replied, trying to avoid the issue of their ' _home_ '.

_XXX_

Ditching Diggle had been easier than Oliver had anticipated. The ex-solider had seemed like a good man, but there was no guilt in Oliver's heart after he'd leapt from the car. He had returned to the old factory in the Glades in minutes, quickly heading to the lair he had been building for the last few months.

Being in the foundry felt secure, Oliver knew who he was down beneath the old factory. No distractions, no confused moral compass and no emotion. Oliver already had his father's book in hand, looking at Adam Hunt's name written on the yellowed pages. Hunt had evaded justice for too long and now Laurel was in his crosshairs, he'd just ranked number one on The Hood's list.

A sudden loud beeping wrenched Oliver from his thoughts and he looked up to see the mobile phone Felicity had given to him was ringing. Seeing the name of the woman he was now thinking about displayed on the screen made him forget, just for a moment, that he had been in the midst of planning a murder/robbery. With a faint smile on his lips Oliver answered the phone.

"Hey, Ollie." Her voice through was soft and Oliver realised it could still make him feel...at home.

Completely reassuring his Oliver Queen 'persona' he responded. "Hi, Felicity. What's up?"

"Ugh, I'm gonna be stuck at QC late, so I'm gonna head straight to your party from work. Sorry I won't be able to catch you at home." Felicity sounded genuinely disappointed she wouldn't be getting that one-on-one time with him.

"That's okay, I'm sure we'll have plenty of time after the party."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. So, how're you getting on with the new bodyguard?" She asked playfully.

"Oh Dig? He's...watchful." Oliver managed a reply, caught off guard by her question.

"I'm sure you'll..." Her voice trailed off as Oliver heard someone else speaking in hushed tones, followed by a sigh from Felicity. "Oliver I've gotta go, I'll see you later."

"Of course, see you soon."

Felicity had cut the time off before Oliver had even finished speaking; so he quickly decided that whatever had come up must have been important. Then his attention his drawn to the news broadcast being displayed on a monitor on his desk.

"The suit alleges that Hunt committed multiple acts of fraud and theft against the city's underprivileged. Laurel Lance, an attorney for the city necessary..."

The rest of the broadcast fell on deaf ears as Oliver's attention returned to the book.

_Adam Hunt...his crimes go deeper than fraud and theft, but he's been able to bully, bribe, or kill anyone who's gotten into his way. He hasn't met me yet._

XXX

Being caught by Diggle had been a surprise. The older man was calmly waiting beside the car when Oliver had exited the lift of the apartment building he and Felicity now shared. His new bodyguard hadn't even mentioned that Oliver had dived out of a moving car. It seemed to him that the pair had already established some form of mutual understanding. The drive to the building where his ' _welcome home bash '_ was taking place had been filled with a comfortable silence and Oliver already had a good sense of the kind of man John Diggle was. As they'd arrived Oliver had taken one last look at the Hunt Multinational tower across the road, already anticipating his moves.

The Hood's earlier chat with Adam Hunt had gone about as well as he'd expected. Hunt had understood the instruction and, as Oliver checked how long the corrupt businessman had left, a small part of him hoped that The Hood would be suiting up in 53 minutes.

As he descended the stairs into the main throng of the party Oliver's eyes immediately began to search out Felicity, unfortunately to no avail. To his disappointment, the blonde was nowhere in sight. One person forced their way into his attention though. Before Oliver had even reached the bottom of the stairs Tommy Merlyn was already by his side, announcing his arrival. His best friend's excitement did leech onto Oliver, and a genuine smile crossed his lips.

"...please give this man a proper homecoming." Tommy concluded, pushing Oliver onto the makeshift stage.

Begrudgingly, Oliver took a stance on the platform looking out over the mass of people here to celebrate his return and, with the exception of Tommy, he recognised none of them. That was the most overwhelming thing about all this, whether it was his five years of hell or simply because it was true, he had never met any of his ' _guests_ ' who were currently in attendance. Standing on the platform Oliver was at a loss for what to say and on instinct his other persons clicked into place.

"Thank you very much, everybody!" Was the first thing that came to mind.

"Ollie, Ollie, Ollie, Ollie." Tommy's voice came from beside him and ow turned to see his friend holding out a shot glass.

As much as Oliver wasn't keen on the idea of starting taking shots before suiting up, he internally thanked Tommy for preventing him from having to give a speech. Deciding the one drink would do no harm and with a fake-grin Oliver grabbed the shot, knocking the drink back in-one. The burning sensation was familiar even after five years and Oliver knew what the alcohol was immediately.

"I missed Tequila!" Oliver shouted to the crowd, knowing they'd have been expecting to see his party-boy nature.

Climbing down from the stage, to the accompaniment of cheering, Oliver headed to Tommy. The Merlyn heir was, of course, stood leaning against the bar and was already checking out the female company in the room. Even through all the changes that had occurred during his time on the island, Oliver was glad that Tommy had stayed the same. As Oliver arrived at Tommy's side he could see Diggle alertly walking around the room, obviously on high alert between the threat of abduction and Oliver's earlier escape. The other thing that caught Oliver's attention was Thea who, in his mind, shouldn't have been at this party at all, let alone buying what was undoubtedly drugs from some guy who definitely wasn't on the guest list. Before Oliver could act, Tommy began to speak.

"Hey, does he wipe for you too?" He began, obviously pointing out Diggle's presence and Oliver only had the energy to shake his head at the remark. "Now by my rough estimate, you have not had sex for 1,839 days. Now if it wasn't for the fact that I've still got a hundred bucks riding on you and Felicity getting back together within the next two weeks I'd have recommend Carmen Golden."

"Which one is she?" Oliver asked, playing along with Tommy's ruse.

"The one that looks like the girl from Twilight." A voice answered that was certainly not Tommy's, Oliver turned to see Felicity now stood beside his friend. "You're taste in women never changes does it, Tommy?"

The cocky, yet somewhat guilt, smirk that spread across Tommy's face said everything as he embraced Felicity. "Good to see you too, Felicity."

"Wait, what's Twilight?" Oliver asked, still a step behind in the conversation.

"You are so better off not knowing." Tommy answered quickly.

"Hey, Ollie." Felicity spoke again, closing the gap between the two.

"Hi, Felicity." Oliver pulled Felicity into a hug as he replied.

As he separated the two, Oliver paused to take in Felicity's appearance. She wore a knee-length blue dress that was flatteringly fitted, her hair was done in loose curls and she had forsaken her glasses for contact lenses. Oliver let a light sigh fall from his lips as his eyes took in her whole body for a second time. While Oliver continued to observe Felicity, he decided that her dress was far too revealing for his taste, the thought of any other man looking at the blonde the way he currently was made his blood boil. The almost possessive nature he felt over Felicity shocked him, although it wasn't an unusual feeling. Before the island, Oliver had always been a little over-protective of Felicity and that had set the two at odds on more than one occasion. Despite that Oliver couldn't help but to appreciate just how breath-taking she looked.

"You look gorgeous." His voice was breathy, as he spoke semi-unconsciously.

Felicity's blush was obvious as she smiled at him. "Thanks." Was all she could manage.

"I thought you said you were staying in the office? Where'd you find time to...?" Oliver simply indicated at her dress and hair with vague hand gestures, at a total loss for how to describe her change of appearance.

"Oh this? I always keep a set of fancy stuff at the office, just in case."

Oliver really shouldn't have been surprised, this was Felicity after all. The Felicity who always had a plan-B regardless of what they were doing, Felicity who built her first computer at the age of seven, his Felicity who made sure they both had spare outfits nearby when they attended their first public QC charity gala together.

_His Felicity_.

Oliver caught his own train of thought, realising what his own internal dialogue had said. He called her ' _his'_  Felicity. Oliver hadn't done that in nearly 5 years and yet now he was once again. Pulling Oliver from his internal anguish was the sight of Thea, who now seemed to be heading somewhere with her friends and whatever she'd just bought. Quickly excusing himself from his conversation with Felicity, Oliver headed over to his sister, though not missing Diggle's move to follow him. Grabbing her arm, Oliver pulled Thea to one side.

Thea beamed at him, obviously not noticing the fury written across his face. "Ollie, hey! This party is sick."

"Who let you in here?" Oliver spoke quickly, already intending on firing whoever had done.

"I believe it was somebody who said, 'Right this way, Miss Queen.'" The youngest Queen replied with a smirk, for some reason she seemed to be treating this as a game.

"Well, you shouldn't be here." Oliver quickly realised this conversation want going anywhere he liked.

"Uh, I'm not 12 anymore."

"No. You're 17." The response had sounded a little sharper than Oliver had intended.

"Ollie, I-I love you, but you can't come back here and judge me, especially for being just like you."

Thea was right, Oliver couldn't deny that. At one time, he had been an all-round party-boy, doing whatever he liked and not caring about the consequences. After he'd met Felicity and calmed that aspect of his life, even if he didn't give it up completely. Oliver had always hoped Thea never remembered that side of his personality, given how young she was at the time. Evidently, he was wrong, the guilt of his actions beginning to rise within him.

"Maybe I was once, a long time ago but Felicity showed me better, even before the island. I was the way I was because I thought that was who everyone wanted me to be. Thea don't make my mistakes. I know that it couldn't have been easy for you when I was...away."

"Away?" The bitter laugh that escaped her lips was unmissable "No. You died. My brother and my father died. I went to your funerals."

"I know."

"No, you don't. Mom had Walter, and Felicity was too wrapped up in her own grief to realise I was suffering just as much as she was. You guys all act like it's cool; let's forget about the last 5 years. Well, I can't. For me, it's kind of permanently in there. So I'm sorry if I turned out some major disappointment, but this...me, is the best I could do with what I had to work with."

Oliver was left in a stunned silence as Thea walked away. He had no idea how much Thea had been suffering without him, out of everyone he had seen since his return his sister had seemed the most calm about his return. His mother had cried, Felicity had shouted, Tommy hid behind humour and puns but Thea...she had just seemed glad to see him. For him to know that she had turned to drugs and alcohol, tuning herself into a younger version of Oliver, it crushed him. All of The Hood's talk about failure, but Oliver decided that it was he who had failed. It was then that the 'what if's' forced their way into his mind.

_If I'd taken the chance and come home sooner, if I'd not been so reckless before..._

Oliver had to fight those thoughts to the recesses of his mind; in a few minutes he wouldn't be able to have those kinds of distractions in his head. Lightly running his fingers along the packet he'd stolen from Thea Oliver headed back towards Felicity at the bar, a plan already formulating in his head.

"What was that all about?" Felicity questioned with a pensive look.

Choosing to ignore the question, Oliver subtly handed the packet to Felicity.

"Can you find out where this is being made?" He knew he was taking a gamble asking this from Felicity, she would definitely be characteristically inquisitive especially if The Hood then targeted whoever was manufacturing the drugs.

Felicity's shock was evident; she was obviously assuming the worst of the small item Oliver had just thrust into her hands.

"Oliver, what the hell is this?" She asked in bewilderment.

"It's not mine..." Felicity's look said she wasn't convinced "I lifted it from Thea." Oliver finished.

"Shit." The look of anger, and perhaps betrayal, on Felicity's face said she knew a lot more about this than Oliver. "She told she'd kicked this stuff."

"You knew about this?" Oliver was aware he was dangerously close to his darker persona when he spoke, but was too furious to care.

Felicity looked up at Oliver, guilt transcribed on her face. "A year or two back, I caught Thea with a friend and a stack of pills in her room at the manor. I didn't say anything to your mom but we worked that whole thing out, I even convinced her to go and see a counsellor for a few weeks. She'd promised me she gave it up." Felicity let out a heavy sigh and rubbed her eyes. "Ollie if I had known she was still on this stuff I swear I would have told you."

Looking at Felicity, Oliver could tell how sincere the blonde was, and how guilty she felt about the whole thing.

"Felicity it's okay" Oliver began, wrapping an arm around her "I believe you. Is there any chance you can track down where it's being made?"

Felicity glanced down at the small packet in her hand and stuffed it into the small purse she wore around one shoulder.

"Of course I can, but I don't see what good it'll do. Thea will just find somewhere else to buy this crap from."

"It's a start." Oliver began, before he could continue the vibrating of his phone pulled him away from the conversation.

_10pm_.

"Booty call?" Felicity teased with a smirk, lightening the mood between the two.

"I asked somebody to do something, they didn't do it."

"Ooh sounds ominous. Anything I can do to help?"

"No, just go enjoy the party. I'll go make a call, see if I can't sort my problem out."

"Alright, hurry back." Felicity smiled at him.

XXX

Taking down Hunt had been a simple enough task, even though Oliver had a pretty close call with the SCPD, he'd made it out relatively unscathed. With a quick change back into his  _casual_ suit, Oliver re-entered the main room to a completely different scene to the one he'd left.

The music had stopped and all the party guests were stood in small groups, SCPD officers interviewing them one-by-one. Tommy was stood at the bottom of the stairs, speaking to a detective when he saw Oliver walk in. Quickly excusing himself Tommy ran over to his friend, grabbing Oliver by the shoulders.

"Oliver, where the hell have you been?" Tommy looked seriously distraught.

"I stepped out to get some air. Tommy what happened here?" Oliver asked, his worry building, largely due to his not being able to spot Felicity.

"A group of armed guys came in, wearing the same masks as the ones who took us earlier..." Tommy trailed off as he spoke.

"Tommy!" Oliver all but shouted, grabbing his friend's arms. "What did they do?"

"Ollie, they..." Tommy's head dropped for a moment before he raised back up to look Oliver in the eye, "...they took Felicity."

Without hesitation Oliver moved out of Tommy's grip and headed straight for the exit, ignoring his friend's calls from behind him. Pushing through the main doors and walking out into the cool night air Oliver saw a furious John Diggle, stood in front of the car.

"Dig..." Oliver began.

"Let me make one thing clear Mr. Queen," the older man cut over him "as far as I'm concerned this whole damn thing is on you. If I hadn't been unconscious in some maintenance corridor Felicity would be stood by your side right now and SCPD would be taking 3 masked men to the morgue. Whatever the hell you left that party for better have been worth it."

Without even waiting for a response, Diggle had turned and started to walk down the street away from Oliver. Hanging his head a little, Oliver accepted that this was on him but he also knew he was the only one who could save Felicity.

_XXX_

It didn't take him long to track the abductors after Oliver had suited up. The low-lives he'd interrogated had been more than willing to help out after receiving an arrow in the shoulder, knee on any other body part Oliver knew would hurt enough to make them talk, without making them bleed out in the process.

These people who had been hired to extract information about Oliver's father seemed to have a thing for abandoned warehouses. Even amongst all the tragedy of the last twenty minutes Oliver found it quite amusing just how sloppy these guys were. They had taken Felicity to a warehouse that was shy of a 5 minute drive from the building his party had been in. Had Oliver arrived back from Hunt's building even a minute earlier he would have stopped them so much sooner.

_You can't think like that._

Moving into the building, Oliver followed a small walkway that was suspended from the ceiling, closing in on the muffled voices that he could hear. When Oliver finally arrived, after what felt like a lifetime, at the room Felicity was being held in he took note of the situation. Felicity was tied to a chair and there were three masked men in the room, only one of which was currently holding a firearm. Especially with his current internal anger, Oliver knew he would have to be careful. He paused for a moment, standing on the walkway, planning his attack.

"I'll ask you nicely one last time blondie; did Queen tell you anything about his father?" The attacker who was stood in front of Felicity shouted.

"And I'll tell you again: Go. To. Hell." Felicity spat back. "Do you even have any idea how ridiculous you look in those masks? What is this some 80s superhero movie?"

For a brief moment a grin of pride crossed Oliver's lips, with her life being threatened Felicity was tough-as-nails. Oliver was reminded one amongst the hundreds of things that made him fall in love with Felicity all those years earlier.

"You irritating little bitch!" Her interrogator snapped, his hand flying up and striking Felicity's cheek.

His eyes widening in shock and anger, Oliver leapt down from the walkway, his patience completely expired. Within a few moments he'd incapacitated the two other abductors and was now stood above the man who had dared to strike his Felicity. A man who was now on his back with an arrow pointed at his throat.

"Please don't kill him! Not for me!" Oliver turned his head in shock to see Felicity begging for the life of the man who had just hurt her.

The look in Felicity's eyes made Oliver realise something, she thought he was a monster for even considering killing the man before him. Oliver took a brief moment to look from Felicity, to the masked man and back to Felicity, the pleading look on her face still the same.

_I never want her to look at me like that again._

With his internal conflict over, Oliver re-aimed his arrow and fired. The metal projectile burying itself in the man's shoulder and pinning him to the ground. Already sick of his screams, Oliver knelt down and with a quick strike rendered him unconscious. Rising back to his feet Oliver turned and headed to where Felicity was sat. He knew he would not be able to speak to her, realising that despite the voice Oliver put on Felicity would still know it was him.

With his head bowed to obscure his features, Oliver moved to slice through her restraints, freeing Felicity from the wooden chair she had been tied to. Oliver cautiously took a step back while she stood and rubbed her obviously sore wrists.

"Thanks...for saving me. I'm really not sure if I would have made it out alive." Felicity spoke, sounding more nervous before the vigilante than she did in the face of her kidnappers.

Oliver simply nodded and began to head for the door, not wanting to risk giving more away than he already had.

"You know..." Felicity's voice came again from behind him and Oliver stopped walking, turning his head to look at her. "I've been wanting to find a way to thank you, for everything you've done for the city. You're a hero to a lot of people."

Swallowing to stop himself from talking to her Oliver continued walking, reaching the doorway before the blonde spoke up again.

"Hold on…do I know you?" Her voice sounded again "I've read the police reports and they've said you talk to the people you save, you haven't said a word since you showed up. That's gotta mean that...I'd know your voice."

For a moment, Oliver stopped breathing. Felicity was too close already. He knew it was a risk to save her himself but one he had to take. Oliver slowly turned back towards the door, intending to leave without allowing Felicity to carry on pulling at the string she'd grabbed. With his head hung, Oliver ran out of the building, leaving Felicity alone.

_XXX_

"Oliver!" Felicity all but dived into his arms when she was brought back to the Queen Mansion.

Felicity had been found after the police interviews one of the criminals The Hood had interrogated. The SCPD found the blonde only moments after Oliver had left her, even if he had only been waiting on a rooftop across the road until she was found. Detective Lance had been suspicious of Oliver's apparent disappearance during Felicity's abduction but, thanks to his mother and Walter, Lance gave up that pursuit quickly enough.

When Oliver had received the call saying the police had found Felicity, he'd gone straight to the mansion to inform the rest of his family and had remained next to the door in anticipation for her return since then. Seeing how glad she was to be with Oliver again told him that her suspicions of The Hood's identity didn't extend to him. After she threw herself into his arms, Oliver held Felicity closer than he thought were possible, still feeling guilt for allowing her to be taken.

_Diggle was right. What if I can't do this alone?_


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So after considering a few different ideas and trying a few things I decried that Felicity's presence wouldn't have had an impact on episode two, so I'm skipping over Honour Thy Father and moving on to Lone Gunman.

 

Near-death via a poisoned bullet hadn't been the end to the night Oliver had planned on, but as he'd expected the herbs from the island had counteracted the toxic effects. Although waking up the next morning, and with no reasonable alibi, hadn't been an enjoyable surprise. On his way out of the foundry, Oliver had received a call from Felicity, telling him to meet her at the mansion. The call had been uncharacteristically cryptic for Felicity, though the sight of police cars when he had arrived at the mansion certainly explained it. As he made his way up the stairs to the mansion, Oliver couldn't miss Felicity impatiently waiting outside the doors.

"Where have you been?" Felicity asked in a jumble of shock, outrage and, Oliver suspected, worry. "You never came home last night and I've been calling you for hours."

"Felicity I...I just spent 5 years away from civilisation. Sometimes I just need to get away from it all and have a quiet place to be alone with no distractions." It wasn't a total lie, but Oliver still felt guilty for hiding the truth from Felicity even though he knew he had no choice.

Her expression mellowed at his explanation and it only added to the weight on his shoulders. Felicity had an inexplicable ability to always see the best in him, no matter how badly he messed up. She had forgiven him for the countless mistakes he made when their relationship first began and somehow Felicity continued to do so almost eight years later.

"It's alright Oliver, I get it" she reassured him, placing a hand on his arm. "But please just let me know so I don't worry about you."

Oliver knew full well she had a right to worry; he could have been killed the previous night if it hadn't been for the herbs and she would never have known. The guilt of abandoning her five years ago, whether he'd had a choice in it or not, still played on his conscience despite his attempts to shun the emotions. Oliver could see how much his supposed death had affected Felicity, how much the unbreakable woman before him had changed from the socially awkward hacker he had met in collage.

"I will, I promise." Another lie, this time one that Oliver told to himself as much as he did to Felicity.

Part of him wanted to try to rekindle some of what they had all those years ago, to let Felicity back into his life. Oliver knew it could never happen. The closer Felicity was to him, the closer she was to the danger that was tethered to his other life and despite the distance the years had put between them, Oliver cared for her too much to risk her life.

"Thank you," a smile spread across her lips as she spoke, before her expression turned serious again. "Come on, we need to go inside."

Entering the Queen mansion and seeing Thea being interviewed by SCPD was not what Oliver was expecting, a part of him had hoped that his return would have helped to repress the self-destructive streak his sister was currently flaunting. On seeing John Diggle stood in the door way, Oliver immediately began questioning the older man, knowing that he would have answers.

"What happened? Thea okay?" He asked.

"Cops brought her home. She and some friends broke into a store and tried on some dresses last night. Lit up the breathalyser like a Christmas tree." Diggle began, keeping his voice low. "So how was your evening, sir?"

"You mean after he said he needed to go to the bathroom at dinner and never came back?" Felicity teased Oliver with a grin.

Diggle looked from Oliver, to the blonde and back, trying to hide his grin at her comment and then holding Oliver's state.

"I guess from now on I'll be watching you pee." Diggle managed to complete his sentence with a straight face.

Felicity had to stifle a giggle, while Oliver just smiled in disbelief at the older man, before leaving both behind him while he entered the main room. As Oliver approached Thea and his mother, Walter led the two SCPD offices out.

"Last time it was public intoxication, this time it was breaking and entering. My how we are moving up in the criminal world." Moria scolded her daughter.

"You know, when you pay off the store owner you should check out the merchandise. They've got some pretty killer outfits." Thea remarked sarcastically.

"Thea go get for school."

"Uhh...you know I was thinking of taking a sick-day."

Oliver had to pause to marvel at the way Thea pushed their mother, and how easily Moria gave in to her manipulations. While Oliver was fully aware that this was almost a complete reflection of his own behaviour at his sister's age, he had hoped she'd have turned out differently, although the incident at his welcome home party a few weeks prior should have told him otherwise. When his sister had left the room, and was safely out of ear-shot, Oliver knew he had to confront his mother.

"You're letting her play hooky?" He questioned.

"When your sister gets like this it's best to give her space." Moria responded.

"She's testing you." Oliver stated, in disbelief as to how his mother didn't see it.

"Yes, who'd she learn that from?"

The comment stung but Oliver knew it was the truth. "Mom...when I was her age you and dad let me get away with murder. And looking back...maybe I could have used less space and more parenting, but I found Felicity. That changed me and you know it did, I honestly hoped Thea wouldn't have remembered who I was before then."

Oliver knew that what he had said about his mother's parenting was hurtful but it needed saying, for his sister's sake more than his.

"Maybe you're right Oliver," Moria began "I just hope Thea is lucky enough to find someone who'll do for her what Felicity did for you."

_XXX_

Learning the bullet was laced with Curare had moved Holder's assassin to the top of Oliver's list. Especially after his alter-ego's encounter with Felicity and new-found reluctance for murder, Oliver decided the gun-for-hire was going down.

Now however, Oliver was stood before the factory in the Glades, below which his base of operations was situated. The nightclub he intended to build would provide a cover for where he spent his evenings as well as providing an excuse for moving any equipment he needed into the area.

"What'd you think?" Oliver asked as he opened the door to the old factory floor.

Tommy, Diggle and Felicity stood behind him, he had ensured both his best friend and ex-girlfriend (if that was even the right term) were present, in order to keep up the pretence.

"Great spot or a nightclub or what?" Oliver continued.

"Sweet." Tommy commented "but I've gotta tell you man, if you were thinking of calling it 'Queens' I don't think you're going to get the clientele you were hoping for."

Oliver had expected a sarcastic remark from his long-time friend but it reaffirmed his suspicions that Tommy would support his choice. While Tommy has a tendency for replying to almost any situation with some sarcastic quip, Oliver had always been able to tell what his best friend was hiding beneath the humour.

"Private office." Oliver pointed to a balcony along one wall.

"For the private one on one meetings with a certain blonde I would imagine." Tommy joked, throwing a knowing grin at Felicity.

Oliver turned his head to see Felicity blushing at the comment but only offered an apologetic smile instead of defending the pair against Tommy, knowing that it would only encourage more embarrassing remarks.

"Oliver," Felicity began "I know you said you didn't want your father's legacy to be your legacy, but is this definitely the right move for you?"

The concern Felicity was showing was understandable but Oliver knew this was the right choice.

"It's the right move, it'll certainly help people realise that I definitely do not want to run an multinational Fortune 500 company."

"Man, are you sure? It's not like you have any experience in running a...well, running anything." Tommy pointed out the obvious flaw in Oliver's plan.

Oliver turned his head to look at Felicity for a brief moment and she nodded at him, somehow knowing what he was thinking. She always had that talent when it came to Oliver, even before they had become a couple Felicity was able to tell exactly what he was thinking, it was almost impossible for him to lie to her. At least it has been before the island.

"Then help me out?" Oliver asked, looking back at Tommy.

"Well how about tomorrow night the two of us, we go an scope out the competition." Tommy offered.

"No, Tommy," Oliver grinned "how does being the co-owner of the soon-to-be hottest nightclub in Starling sound?"

"Are you serious?" Tommy asked, wearing a look of bewilderment.

"I think we've been to enough nightclubs between us to run a successful one." Oliver finished, holding out his hand.

"Well, this'll be interesting," with a grin Tommy shook Oliver's hand and laughed a little, "so anyway there's this new club opening downtown, it's called Poison, Max Fuller owns it."

"Max Fuller? Didn't you..." Oliver trailed off.

"Sleep with his fiancé?" Felicity finished for him.

"It's was before the wedding." Tommy noted.

"It was at the rehearsal dinner." Oliver pointed out, trying to mask a laugh.

"The rehearsal dinner is technically before the wedding, right?"

The two old friends shared a laugh, while Felicity looked at the pair with a distinct lack of amusement. They were saved from a scolding by the petite blonde when Tommy's phone rang.

"You know... I've got a feeling he's still be mad." Oliver added.

"Ah damn it, I've gotta roll," Tommy spoke as he looked at his phone "Anyway, I'll see you later man. Good place" he finished as he walked towards the exit.

"I should be getting off too," Felicity spoke up "I do have a department to run back at QC."

"Yeah, I'll see you at home then."

"Of course." Felicity smiled at Oliver before she turned to leave, leaving him and Diggle alone in the abandoned factory.

_XXX_

Using the Bratva connection Oliver had in Starling would definitely help locate the Deadshot but Oliver also knew it would come at a price. A favour for a favour. That was how the Bratva operated. Though that was a worry for later Oliver decided as he checked over his appearance before a mirror.

Oliver had opted to turn the spare bedroom at Felicity's penthouse into his personal wardrobe while the two continued to share a bed. It was a silent routine the duo had fallen into, neither had said a word about the situation but each night when Oliver returned home he would silent climb into bed alongside a sleeping Felicity. The next morning Oliver would awake to find Felicity sat in the kitchen with a cup of coffee prepared for the both of them.

The routine felt all too familiar for Oliver. He and Felicity had ended up sharing an apartment in the year before the island and their life back then had a striking resemblance to what was happening now. Oliver had an argument with himself almost daily about their current living situation. A large part of him wanted to maintain this life with Felicity; he thought he could keep the balance between Oliver Queen and the Hood. Beyond providing cover for him, Oliver was genuinely beginning to reconnect with Felicity in a way he hadn't expected. Though he also knew that she was a liability. Felicity had already been kidnapped once already because of him and Oliver knew that with both of his personas she would be at even more risk.

Oliver sighed as he observed his reflection, rubbing his eyes a little as he did. Knowing that he didn't have time for this argument again and that Felicity was probably already waiting for him in the lounge. His suspicions were confirmed when he heard her impatient voice sounding from the other side of the door.

"Oliver, are you ready yet?"

_**September 6** _ _**th** _ _**2006** _

_"Oliver are you ready yet?!" Felicity all-but shouted as she threw open the door to the bathroom._

_The two were supposed to be attending a charity gala that was being thrown at the mansion by Moira. Oliver and Felicity had been staying at the Queen estate for the weekend so they were only a 30 second walk away from the room where the gala was being held. Felicity's impatient behaviour in these situations was something Oliver had gotten used to. He knew she was convinced that they had to be on their best form on these occasions. For reasons he still couldn't understand Felicity continued to feel the need to impress his mother._

_The gala wasn't due to start for another half an hour but Felicity insisted that they be ready early in order to help greet some of the guests. Oliver had almost laughed before he saw how serious she looked and had tried to convince Felicity that they'd be able to meet-and-greet everyone after the event had started. Despite his honest reassurance that most of the stuffed shirts were easier to talk to after they'd all had a few drinks, Felicity still wanted to be ready early and so she was. Oliver however was stood in the bathroom checking himself over in the mirror one more time after shaving, just to be safe._

_He had jumped a little in surprise when his girlfriend had more or less ripped the bathroom door off it's hinges when she'd come to check on him. Felicity had paused when she opened the door, frozen on the spot as she looked at Oliver. He was stood shirtless in front of the mirror, with his suit pants looking a little out of place next to his exposed chest. It hadn't taken Oliver long to figure out what Felicity was looking at and a smug grin crept over his face._

_"See something you like, Smoak? He smirked._

_"I...umm..." Felicity stumbled before she snapped herself back into focus. "Oliver we're going to be late if you don't hurry up."_

_"What's the rush? We've got plenty of time." Oliver continued as he approached Felicity, taking both her hands in his._

_"Ollie..." Felicity spoke as she took steps backwards._

_Oliver matched her steps, following Felicity into their shared bedroom until she backed into the edge of the bed, stopping her in her tracks. Moving closer Oliver leant down a little, his lips lightly dragging along the pulse on her neck. Felicity let out an almost undetectable sigh at his actions and it only encouraged him._

_"Oliver the guests will be here in half an hour...we shouldn't..." Her words came out breathy, almost inaudible as she spoke._

_"Shouldn't, Lis, doesn't mean we can't." Oliver turned his head so his lips were almost against hers, less than an inch between them. "You know what I can doin 10 minutes, never mind half an hour."_

_Felicity bit her lip as she looked up at him and Oliver couldn't deny how amazingly beautiful she looked in that moment, even more so than usual._

_"Ol..."_

_Felicity was cut off as Oliver pressed his lips against hers, the rest of her words coming out as a moan against his mouth. Pulling away Oliver smiled at Felicity, knowing just from her repose to the kiss that he had won her over._

_"Oliver..."_

_**Present Day** _

"Oliver?!" Felicity's voice sounded again, even more impatient than before.

With a final glance in the mirror, Oliver pushed his memories to one side and headed out of the room to meet Felicity. She was stood in the lounge, just a few feet away, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw her. Felicity was clad in a black knee-length dress, with a plunging neckline which left very little to the imagination. Not that Oliver needed to use it of course, he still knew every inch of Felicity's body, just as he was sure she still knew his.

"You look..." Oliver didn't quite know how to describe the awe he felt at seeing her.

Even without him finishing the compliment a blush grew on Felicity's cheeks, subtle enough it could have been missed. Visibly swallowing Felicity spoke up.

"John is waiting with the car outside, we're going to be late meeting Tommy if we don't hurry."

_XXX_

Walking into Max Fuller's club alongside an over-confident Tommy and a not-so-silently judgemental Felicity was an interesting start to Oliver's evening. Diggle was a few steps behind them though and would most probably be helpful if they came across any trouble, not that Oliver needed the help but it was always handy to have Diggle close-by, if not for Oliver's own sake but Felicity's.

"Oh man, this is gonna be killer." Tommy laughed.

"If Max Fuller catches you here Tommy, I agree." Felicity joked, though Oliver could recognise the serious undertones in her voice.

"Oh come on 'Lissy, if you wanna run a business you gotta take a few risks." Tommy grinned.

"I don't see your name on the list."

The trio turned to see Diggle being stopped by the club's bouncer. Both Oliver and Tommy found the situation amusing, the two men sporting wide grins on their faces. Felicity however was trying to mask her smile.

"Mr. Queen?"

Oliver walked back over to the bouncer and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I have never seen this guy before, in my life. Ever."

With a smug wink in Diggle's direction, Oliver turned to walk away but with a roll of her eyes Felicity headed back to the rope, much to the disappointment of the best friends behind her.

"Excuse him," Felicity began as she approached the bouncer "that's Dig, our security guy, let him through."

Begrudgingly, the bouncer allowed Diggle to step past, the older man thanking Felicity as he did. As he and Tommy headed further into the club; Oliver could feel Diggle shooting daggers into the back of his head and laughed to himself.

Felicity and Diggle caught up to the duo as they entered the main area of the club. The venue seemed to Oliver like Tommy's usual haunt and had little doubt that their club would end up having a similar atmosphere. As they approached the bar, Diggle seemed to fall back a little, blending into the mass of people so as to better survey the room. Tommy's eyes seemed to be drawn across the bar and at the same Oliver and Felicity saw the woman who had got his attention. Before the trio were in Laurel's view Tommy began to speak.

"Oh wow! Doesn't you going out and having fun violate some kinda law? You know, like the ones that are carved on a stone tablet?"

"That's cute, Tommy."

"Thanks."

Oliver and Felicity took a step back to observe the interaction between the two; both knowing that Tommy and Laurel had so much history between them that nobody understood why they weren't already a serious item. The two had flirted constantly when they had all been teenagers but neither had made a move which, given Tommy's reputation and Laurel's stubbornness, was a surprise.

"So I guess Tommy's up to his old hunting patterns, but if you've come along Felicity I guess that means you and Ollie are back together?" Laurel asked with a smirk.

Oliver and Felicity both stopped in stunned silence, awkwardly looking between each other and Laurel.

"No, just...seeing what passes for fun in Starling City after 5 years." Oliver replied.

"Yeah...that." Felicity added unnecessarily, her awkward words causing a knowing grin to creep across Laurel's lips.

"Ah, well I'm sure you'll find it just hasn't been the same without our very own dynamic duo."

Before Oliver could reply he heard a shriek come from behind him and Thea came running into his view.

"Big brother! I am so wasted right now...there is...there's two of you."

"I thought you were grounded?"

"I am...thank-thank you for that by the way." It didn't escape Oliver's notice that Tommy had ordered shots for himself, Laurel and Felicity while he spoke to Thea.

"You're done for the night." Oliver signalled Diggle when he spoke.

"Ahh, what are you gonna do? Tell mom?"

"Thea, you are hanging with the wrong people."

"You're one to talk. How much do you know about your own so-called friends over here?"

"Whoa Thea, maybe you shouldn't..." Tommy stepped in but Thea cut him off.

"Tommy, I think you're BFF has a right to know."

"Thea. let's go." Oliver all but order her.

"I guess they never told you that they've been screwing while you were gone."

Oliver looked across to Felicity who looked equally as amazed as he did, while Tommy and Laurel hung their heads in shame. An uncomfortable silence fell between the quintet that was interrupted by Diggle's arrival.

"Everything alright here, Mr. Queen?"

"John, would you please take Thea home?" Oliver asked.

"Of course, sir. Right this way, Miss Queen." John directed his attention at Thea.

While the youngest Queen may have been content to rebel against her mother and brother, she thought twice about arguing with the veritable wall of muscle that was John Diggle. With a spiteful look in her eyes Thea let Diggle escort her from the club. As John and Thea faded from sight, Oliver turned back to Tommy and Laurel.

"Look, man I..." Tommy began.

"Tommy, it's okay." Oliver replied; knowing how awkward the situation was.

"Well well...look at this. Tommy Merlyn and Oliver Queen." A voice sounded from behind Oliver.

Turning, Oliver saw Max Fuller stood with a bouncer either side of him. Glancing out the corner of his eye Oliver saw Tommy getting to his feet and moving to his side.

"Max, how ya been?"

Fuller's lack of reply should have told the duo that they were in trouble, though somehow neither of them fully realised what was happening until they'd been thrown into a private room and Fuller had just floored Tommy.

"Get 'im up!" Fuller shouted to his bouncers, who lifted Tommy from the ground with ease.

Oliver calmly stepped between Tommy and the men, blocking them from getting to his oldest friend.

"Told you he was gonna be pissed, Tommy." Oliver stated, his eyes not moving from his stare-down with Fuller.

"Back off Queen this isn't your problem." Fuller was stood at the back of the room, an all too smug smile on his face.

"You wanna get to him, you're gonna have to go through me." Oliver held his cool composure.

"Oliver, they are going to go through you."

As soon as the first bouncer touched him Oliver began throwing punches, knowing this wasn't ending with pacifism. It was difficult to maintain his self-control in the fight, as Oliver knew full well he could take down all of these men with barely any effort. It wasn't until he heard Laurel's voice that Oliver stopped fighting back.

"You three consider yourselves banned for life. Get the hell outta my place."

Oliver couldn't help but smirk as he watched Fuller leaving the room with his tail between his legs.

"Your club sucks anyway!" Tommy called after him. Oliver wanted to scold Tommy for his goading but instead just smiled, taking some comfort in how similar some aspects of his life truly were.

"You guys okay?" Laurel asked, as soon as Fuller and his men were gone.

"Where's you learn to do that?" Oliver asked, intrigued by her obvious training.

"Cop dad, remember? He made me take self-defence classes." Laurel replied stoically, seeming remarkably disconnected from what just happened.

"Is it over?" Oliver looked over Laurel's shoulder to see Felicity walking into the room, appearing fearful that the fighting was still continuing.

"It's over." Laurel spoke, headed towards the door.

"Laurel, what Thea said..." Oliver called after her, the brunette turning back to them with anger written across her face but Oliver continued before she could stop him. "it's about damn time."

_XXX_

"Why don't you guys take a seat and I will grab a couple of burgers and some ice for those faces."

Oliver squirmed a little as he entered the Big Belly Burger building, still feeling the sting from having to take a few too many punches than was necessary in the fight with Fuller's men. Felicity hadn't stopped scolding himself and Tommy the whole journey from Fuller's club and, regrettably, Oliver knew her lecture was well deserved.

Oliver was a little uneasy by being brought to a fast food restaurant on the edge of the Glades, especially since it was under Diggle's guidance they were here. Though Oliver had faith in Diggle's choice of venue, the bodyguard's overprotective nature would never have brought them here if he wasn't sure it was safe. It didn't escape Oliver's notice that Diggle was waving to a fairly attractive waitress, though clearly she didn't escape Tommy's notice either.

"Hm, girl's pretty cute." Tommy spoke, waving a little in the direction of the waitress.

"That's my Sister-in-law." Diggle's completely monotone response clearly intimidated Tommy.

"Who I will never speak to, or look at...ever. Gonna grab a booth."

Oliver simply looked at his old friend in disbelief, while Felicity contently let out a giggle at Tommy's embarrassment, all three of them watching him retreat to the far side of the restaurant. Perhaps he was overthinking the situation but Oliver couldn't let the lack of a wedding ring on the  _'sister-in-law's'_  finger go, briefly debating if it was insensitive to bring it up.

"She's not wearing a wedding ring. Brother out of the picture?"

"Oliver!?" Felicity hissed, slapping lightly him on the arm. So maybe that comment had been a little insensitive.

"Yeah you could say that." Diggle seemingly ignored Felicity's outburst, instead looking across to the waitress with what Oliver could only describe as regret.

Knowing not to press the issue any further, both out of respect to Diggle and fear of future scolding from Felicity, Oliver headed across to Tommy with Felicity at his side. Lowering himself into the booth, Oliver let out a heavy sigh, now fully realising the ache in his bones, and Felicity silently took a seat beside him. This wasn't a strange sensation to Oliver, in fact it was almost comfortable for the three of them to be in this sort of situation again. If it wasn't for the aching bones, Oliver thought, he could have been back in collage and he decided to enjoy the comfortable silence that had fallen over them. Though, it didn't take long for Tommy to break the silence.

"Look man...about Laurel. I was gonna tell you..."

"Tell Oliver?" Felicity interrupted "Forget telling him, how come I didn't know and Thea did?"

Oliver couldn't help but smile at Felicity's comment, she did always have a need for having all the answers and this seemed to be a big one to have missed. Though he couldn't deny a certain curiosity, it was hardly a surprise that Thea was the first to find out; she had a strange knack for omnipotence.

"Well, I..." Tommy clearly didn't have an answer for Felicity, and quickly met Oliver's eyes with an expression that said 'help me'.

"Felicity, it doesn't matter." Oliver turned from the blonde and directed his attention at his best-friend. "Ask her out; on a real date, with real food and real drinks. Tommy, the two of you should have been together years ago. Just get on with it already."

"You are being really chill about this. I..." Tommy stopped speaking as Oliver's phone started ringing.

Not recognising that number, Oliver answered with his usual cheery mask but couldn't help the change in his tone when the voice on the other end was speaking Russian. Recognising the odd looks from Tommy and Felicity at his reply to the call, he lowered the phone to his chest.

"Potential supplier for the club, I'm trying to find someone who sells that Russian vodka my dad used to have." Oliver directed the end of his sentence at Tommy. "I'm gonna need to take this."

With a smile at both Felicity and Tommy, Oliver got to his feet and headed outside. "So I checked out."

"You did." Alexi's thick Russian accent came through the phone. "His name is Floyd Lawton. I have address, where he stayed last time he was in Starling City but that is all."

"Let's hope he's a creature of habit. Go."

"Seventeen hundred Broadway, Pape Motel, Room 52. You'll leave us out of this, yes? Assuming Mr. Lawton doesn't kill you first."

_XXX_

_Shit._

Oliver was regretting this plan already but the laptop he'd stolen from Lawton's hotel room was wrecked and Felicity was his best bet of recovering whatever data he could, of that he had no doubt. He knew this wouldn't go down well with her, asking for a favour with a 'no questions asked' policy attached, especially since the laptop was riddled with bullet holes. It was too late to turn back now though, Oliver was already stood outside her office at QC, Lawton's laptop in hand.

He didn't knock when he walked in, the door was already open and Felicity was busy typing at her computer. So busy in fact she didn't notice his arrival.

"Felicity Smoak?" Oliver tried to hide a smile as he spoke.

Felicity span around in her chair to face him, obviously a little startled at his presence.

"I'm having some trouble with my computer and they told me you were the person to come and see." Oliver finished, a smug grin beginning to grow across his lips.

"That's real cute, Oliver." Felicity spoke dryly.

_**September 21** _ _**st** _ _**2004** _

_"Felicity Smoak? I'm having some trouble with my computer and they told me you were the person to come and see."_

_The raven-haired computer geek eyed him steadily, and Oliver could practically see the wheels turning in her head. She was trying to figure out why she recognised him. Oliver always enjoyed these moments, the slow thought process and then the awkward surprise when they figured out he was Oliver Queen, playboy extraordinaire._

_"Who's they?"_

_That wasn't what he'd been expecting. "Pretty much everyone I've asked, it seems you're a little bit of a local legend, Felicity." Oliver shot her his best billion dollar smile._

_The slight nod she gave in response obviously meant she was well aware of her reputation, but still enjoyed it when people comment on her skill. Oliver took the brief silence to look around the room; it was dark, borderline gothic and filled with various computer fragments. While he'd been asking for help around campus with regards to his laptop problem, 99% of the people he'd spoken to had recommended Felicity Smoak. Although the advice came with a warning: 'don't get on her bad side'. He recalled 'bitch with Wi-Fi' being one of the more pointed warnings._

_"Hold on, you're Oliver Queen."_

_'And there it is.' Oliver thought to himself."The one and the only."_

_"Oliver Queen is in my dorm asking for tech support." Felicity paused. "Is this some convoluted attempt to try and sleep with me? Because if it is, let me tell you..."_

_"Woah, woah, nothing like that. I spilled my coffee on my laptop and I've got a big assignment due tomorrow. I was hoping you could recover the data." Oliver cut over her, briefly taking a pause to run his eyes over her features again. "But I'd be lying if I said that thought hadn't crossed my mind."_

_Felicity continued to eye him disapprovingly, but seemed reasonably content with his answer._

_"You spilled coffee on your laptop?" Her question seemed a little too accusing for Oliver's liking._

_"I did."_

_"Alright then, let's see the damage."_

_**Present Day** _

"Next time you do this to me, I've got half a mind to ignore you."

"Oh, come on, Felicity," Oliver began, taking a seat on the opposite side of Felicity's desk. "We both know you couldn't ignore me if you tried."

Oliver couldn't miss her smile at his comment, nor could he help himself from returning one. He took a pause to take her in; it was Oliver's first chance to see Felicity in this environment; the place where she was in total control. Oliver had to admit, he'd never been one for the whole office girl fantasy but seeing Felicity like this, behind a desk in her pencil skirt and blouse, was bringing some incredibly impure thoughts to his mind.

"Okay, so what's the problem this time, Oliver?" Felicity beamed at him.

Oliver slid the laptop onto her desk and, even knowing she'd see straight through his lies, started to try and give an explanation for the bullet-riddled laptop. "I was at a coffee shop, surfing the web and I spilt a latte on it."

Felicity ran her hand over the laptop as he spoke, obviously the brief initial shock of seeing the bullet holes distracting her. "Oliver!" Felicity began a little too loudly. On noticing the door to her office was open she dropped her voice to a sharp whisper. "These are bullet holes."

"The coffee shop was in a bad neighbourhood."

At his comment, Felicity practically jumped to her feet and moved to the office door. Pushing it shut with a loud bang, Felicity marched back over to Oliver. "Oliver, what the hell is going on?! First you give me a bag of drugs and ask me to trace where it was made and now you're bringing me a laptop covered in bullet holes! I'm starting to get a little freaked out here."

"Felicity," Making sure his voice was calm as he spoke; Oliver rose to his feet, taking Felicity's hands gently in his own. "Right now, I can't give you a good answer. All I can do is ask you to trust me and promise that, at some point down the line, when the time is right, I will explain all of this to you. Please, Felicity. Just trust me."

It was almost visible; the way the anger melted from Felicity's eyes and was replaced with a kind of gentle understanding. Oliver hoped that what he had just said wasn't a lie, that at some stage he really would be able to explain his other life to Felicity and then, maybe, she'd be able to accept him for who he really was, not just for who he'd been five years ago.

"Okay." Felicity's voice was barely a whisper.

She slipped her hands out of his and moved back around to her computer. Oliver watched silently as she worked at linking the broken laptop up to her work-station. After a brief moment of waiting, Felicity seemed successful and Oliver quickly took a seat beside her.

"Looks like blueprints."

"Do you know what of?"

"The Exchange building."

"Never heard of it."

"It's where the Unidac Industries auction is scheduled to take place."

The blank look Oliver was giving Felicity obviously told her how oblivious he was to the contents of the laptop.

"You said this was your laptop." It wasn't a question.

"Yes."

"Well it had better not be. Walter is trying to buy Unidac Industries and you've got a company laptop associated with one of the guys he's competing against."

"Floyd Lawton." Though why a gun for hire would be competing in a liquidation auction was beyond Oliver.

"No, Warren Patel. Who's Floyd Lawton?"

"He is an employee of Mr. Patel, evidently."

"Oliver, this is... We're meant to be at that auction tonight, Walter invited us both. Is there something I need to know here?"

_XXX_

It had taken a lot more work than Oliver had thought, but he'd managed to convince Felicity to stay away from the auction. His persuasion had been made easier after the SCPD officially warned all the Unidac bidders about the potential attack, though it seemed Walter was not to be dissuaded.

"I just think we should be a little bit more careful. My mother's already lost a husband."

"If Moira shared your concern she wouldn't have come, and she definitely wouldn't have brought your sister."

This hadn't been part of Oliver's concern, he hadn't realised his mother and sister would be in attendance. They needed to leave, now, while the shooter was yet to make a move. If he was lucky, they'd make it out okay. Signalling to Diggle to get them out, Oliver realised he'd been too late. The shots had already started, but Walter was safe with Lance and Diggle was getting Thea and his mother to safety. That made it easier as Oliver fought Lawton.

"Drop your guns."

"I admire your work. Guess you won't be extending me any professional courtesy."

"We're not in the same line of business. Your profession is murder."

"You've taken lives, though I've gotta say; noticed to the drop in the body count lately. What's that about?"

"I took lives for the good of others, but not anymore. You're out for yourself."

Gunfire slammed into the pillar behind him, Oliver could feel the vibrations the bullets made in the concrete. As soon as the shooting stopped Oliver emerged from his cover, bow drawn, only to find Lawton gone. He took a few steps toward where Lawton has been stood, still wary of a surprise by the assassin. The sound behind him put Oliver on edge, he span but only to see Diggle in the doorway, doubled over and clutching his wounds.


	7. Chapter 7

 

Admitting defeat didn't come easy to Oliver Queen, it didn't before the island and now the word was practically non-existent to him. Which is why Diggle's refusal hit so hard. Oliver wasn't sure what he'd been expecting when he'd extended the offer, but he had significantly higher hopes than outright refusal. It was never going to be easy to convince the former solider to become a vigilante but Oliver had been given nothing to bargain with, Diggle seemed wholly appalled by the idea.

It was a near certainty that Diggle's anger was largely as a result of his tendency to kill, even if he had stopped killing, 'The Hood' had already racked up a worryingly high body count. It seemed Diggle's morals meant any casualty outside the field of war was unacceptable. Except, Oliver had tried to tell him, this was a war.

Oliver hadn't had time to explain to Diggle that he'd stopped killing before the ex-soldier had walked out, but a part of him thought Diggle wouldn't believe it. Maybe that was because Oliver didn't quite believe it himself. He still thought that it was what the city needed; it needed him to permanently remove the cancer that was growing beneath the surface, it needed someone who would do whatever was necessary, but maybe that wasn't Oliver anymore. He'd seen the way Felicity looked at 'The Hood' when he was about to kill one of the men who'd taken her, and Oliver never wanted her to look at  _him_  that way, if she ever found out the truth.

The full realisation of how much Diggle's words had cut him hit when Oliver realised he was still staring at the staircase almost 10 minutes after the other man had fled up them. He was wrenched from the trance by his phone, knowing without doubt that it would be one of his family checking in on him.

It wasn't a surprise to Oliver when he saw Felicity's name and picture flash up on the screen. "Hey."

"Oliver?! Where are you?" Felicity's panic burned through as she spoke "We're all at the mansion, we've been worried sick. I mean, are you seriously so self-centred that you didn't think we'd all be wondering where you went after you got shot at?"

"Felicity, I was with John." Oliver covered quickly, "he got hit in the shooting, I wanted to make sure he made it through."

"Oh god. Is he alright?"

"Yeah, he's fine, turns out the shooter was lacing his rounds with some kind of poison, I wanted to wait with John until he woke up. Looks like he just took a bullet to the shoulder, he'll recover in no time."

Felicity didn't answer him straight away, instead he heard whispers through the phone which he could only assume was Felicity informing the rest of his family where he'd been. After a brief pause, Oliver heard the voices quieten.

"Oliver, your mother wants us to stay at the mansion tonight, just to be safe."

Oliver had to resist pointing out how insane his mother sounded. The threat seemed to be against anyone interesting in buying Unidac Industries, it seemed to Oliver that being in the mansion put him and Felicity at greater risk given that Walter was still in the running to purchase the company.

"Felicity, there's no risk; the shooter was after people bidding for Unidac. Given neither of us we're involved I think we'll be fine at the penthouse."

Oliver nearly rolled his eyes when he heard the hushed voices come through the phone again; Felicity was clearly on his side and was trying to argue the point with his mother. While the debate took place, Oliver had changed out of his 'Hood' outfit and back into a suit.

"Your mother's pretty adamant about it. Oliver, I think we should, if only to give her peace of mind?"

"Yeah okay," Felicity always was good at playing the guilt card. It had been one of her best tricks when they'd first started 'dating'. It was a phrase Oliver used very loosely to describe their early relationship, it had mostly been coffee and IT issues for the first 6 months. Though Felicity always had a knack for getting him to do whatever she wanted, guilting him was always her first choice but she had other methods of persuasion, ones that Oliver preferred. Just thinking about it brought images to the front of Oliver's mind that he definitely should not have been thinking about given the circumstances. "I'll see you soon."

_XXX_

The Queen-Steele family, plus Tommy and Laurel, had been impatiently waiting for Oliver on his arrival home. Oliver had barely had time to register what was happening before Felicity threw her arms around him, the rest of the room's occupants watching in near silence. The look Tommy gave him when Oliver met his eyes over Felicity shoulder, told him that Tommy was only there on Laurel's insistence. Oliver's best friend wasn't one to outwardly show his concern, at the risk of damaging his reputation as a carefree playboy. In fact, Tommy seemed almost amused by Oliver's disappearing act, probably, Oliver surmised, because it was reminding him of how things had been before the island. He and Tommy had been the very definition of trust fund playboys, in retrospect Oliver thought they had been a walking cliché even if it had been enjoyable at the time.

Of course, the second Felicity had released him from her embrace, Laurel and his mother began scolding him of his irresponsibility. After a particularly heated argument with the rest of his family about the necessity of checking in after near-death experiences, Oliver had finally managed to get away in the hopes of getting some much needed rest.

It had been the first night since his official return that Oliver hadn't slept with Felicity by his side, which probably explained why he couldn't sleep. Everyone-possibly, Oliver thought, with the exception of Tommy-was convinced that he and Felicity had moved in as friends, that their relationship had not returned its 'pre-island' level. So they'd had to take separate rooms to avoid the suspicions of the Queen-Steele family. It hadn't taken long before the memories of the island had dragged Oliver to consciousness in a thick sweat, and getting back to sleep without Felicity at his side felt impossible.

Instead, Oliver had decided to retreat from his room to watch TV and had ended up watching Peter Declan's story alongside his sister. Declan - while Oliver agreed he was a monster of his own kind - was not a person Oliver would sentence to death, not with his own hands anyway. He'd killed his wife, but people guilty of crimes of passion were rarely repeat offenders. Not to say Declan shouldn't go unpunished, but the death penalty was a little extreme.

"So why can't you sleep?" Thea had made it to her interrogation portion of their midnight TV viewing.

"Bad dreams." Oliver wasn't sure how to put into words what he experienced in his nightmares, but even if he could he'd never want to expose Thea to it. Oliver felt more protective of his sister now than ever before, possibly because Oliver was trying to protect her from himself. He knew if Thea ever found out what really happened to him on the island, it would break her. His supposed death had done enough damage, finding out what he'd actually been through in those 5 years would push her over the edge, one she may well fall off anyway if she kept on her current path.

"About?" The younger Queen wasn't backing down.

"The island...Felicity."

"So why don't you make a play? I mean, she hardly dated anyone the whole time you were gone and you were back like a 10 seconds before she asked you to move in with her."

That was news to Oliver. After his return, he hadn't looked into Felicity's personal life through the time he was away. Part of him said it was out of respect for Felicity's privacy but the larger, and the more honest part, knew it was because he was afraid of what he might find. As much as Oliver had tried to convince himself they both had moved on, he'd known he wouldn't have handled knowing Felicity's romantic life since his disappearance well.

Learning that she hadn't had any serious relationships since him, made him feel...strange. It wasn't good, because Oliver couldn't help but to blame himself for it and knowing he'd caused Felicity to go through the last 5 years more or less alone added to his guilt. Though it wasn't bad either, because some part of Oliver knew it meant that there could be a chance for them to pick up where they left off. He had to push those thoughts aside, Oliver Queen might be want to be with Felicity but his alter ego would never leave room for the kind of commitment needed for a serious relationship.

"There are reasons." He resigned as his answer. He couldn't possibly begin to explain them to Thea.

"What are they?"

"Bad ones."

It wasn't a lie. Oliver knew his justifications for closing off that part of his life were terrible ones. Felicity had just as much chance of being hurt by being linked with Oliver Queen as she did with 'The Hood'. At least if she knew about that part of him she would know he'd always been there to save her, no matter the cost. He couldn't deny her kidnapping at his return was definitely a result of his being Oliver, and she didn't seemed threatened because of his dark passenger, yet Oliver was using that as his reason for avoiding a real emotional connection with her. Of all the lies Oliver had told since his return, this was the biggest, mostly because it was one he told to himself more than anyone else. He was beginning to run out of reasons to keep emotionally distant to Felicity, and that was making it all the more harder to resist.

"I know that it might not seem like it sometimes, but... I'm not the same person I used to be."

"So show her. Be yourself. I mean, your new self.

Oliver had to pause to marvel at how much Thea had matured in his absence, even if she chose to ignore it most of the time. In moments like this, there was almost wisdom in his sister that Oliver knew was beyond her years. Maybe it was advice worth taking; Oliver had already had Felicity's help with his mission, so maybe he could ask for more.

_XXX_

Rob had seemed nice enough; it didn't make Oliver feel guilty for ditching him on his first day though. His mother's insistence on body guards was irritating, but it seemed she couldn't be dissuaded. Learning Diggle had quit had been another blow to the gut, though the SCPD were yet to show up and arrest him, giving Oliver a little hope in his plan to convince Diggle to work with him. Now he had a foot in the door, the lack of cops meant that, even if on some subconscious level, Diggle was considering the offer and that was good news to Oliver.

A partner would help, Oliver knew he couldn't do this one his own and Diggle was perfect. Today alone had proven to Oliver that he could trust the man with his secrets, with his whole life. Diggle probably wouldn't need much more of a push to really get him considering the offer, but Oliver decided to bench that particular mission for later.

Seeing the news that morning had made Oliver doubt his initial impression of Declan. He'd spent the whole afternoon looking into the murder. It certainly looked as though Declan had killed his wife in cold blood. He had no alibi. All the evidence pointed towards it. He was tried, convicted, sentenced to death. An open and shut case, except for one thing. Declan's wife, Camille, worked for Jason Brodeur and Jason Brodeur was on the list. In Oliver's mind, that meant the odds were good Brodeur was involved in the murder, which meant an innocent man could be facing execution.

Oliver couldn't get directly involved, he couldn't try to get information if he didn't have anywhere to begin. That meant he needed help. Laurel. If he could convince her of Declan's innocence she might be able to give him somewhere...someone, to get information from. Except she'd never believe Oliver Queen, but she might believe his alter ego.

_XXX_

The gamble on Laurel seemed to have paid off, she'd believed his theory about Declan at the least. Oliver knew that once the idea was in her head Laurel would turn every stone trying to find even the slightest shred of evidence to prove Declan's innocence. Despite being successful with convincing Laurel to help him, Oliver had to admit it was a little strange to have someone he called a friend pointing a gun at him, even if he had known she'd never fire it. Oliver would meet with her again later that night but now, with added courage from his success with Laurel, Oliver was set on convincing Diggle.

He knew this would still be harder than with Laurel, but now there was a chance that he'd make some headway. This was probably his last real chance at convincing Diggle, after this he'd have to leave the ex-soldier to make a decision in his own. Oliver was still stuck with Rob and, even though he already had a plan to ditch the bodyguard to make his meeting with Laurel, the man's presence was an inconvenience. Especially as Rob seemed to report his disappearances back to his mother far more regularly than Diggle did.

"I couldn't help but notice a distinct lack of police cars when I got home. I knew you wouldn't drop a dime on me. So, have you considered my offer?"

"Offer? That's one hell of a way to put it."

"It is an offer. It's a chance to do the kind of gold that compelled you to join the military."

"Please. You were born with a platinum spoon in your mouth, Queen. What, you spent five years on an island with no room service and suddenly you found religion?"

"Not religion John, purpose."

"Oliver, you put on a good at night and run around this city killing people with a bow and arrow. That's not purpose, that's murder."

"I don't...I'm trying something different. I haven't killed anyone since the first day Oliver Queen came back to Starling."

"What?"

"That night at my welcome home party, Felicity was kidnapped. 'The Hood' saved her. I was going to kill the people who hurt her but John, I saw her eyes when I was about to let that arrow fly...I never want her to look at me like that again."

Bringing the list with him had been a calculated decision. It was the ultimate piece of his crusade, without it he'd have been lost. Hopefully it would show Diggle the truth of the mission, the truth of how many people were corrupting the city, how far the cancer had spread, and maybe that meant he couldn't cut it out alone.

"This was my fathers. I found it when I buried him."

"I thought you said your father died when the boat went down."

"We both made it to a lift raft. There wasn't enough food and water for both of us, so he shot himself in the head. As much as he was doing it to give me a chance to survive I believe he was also atoning for his sins. I need to right the wrongs done by my family and I'm offering you the chance to right the wrongs done to yours."

Bringing up Deadshot was another difficult decision. Oliver knew it must have plagued Diggle not to have known what happened to his brother, and now he might have a chance to find the assassin, thanks to Oliver.

"Oliver, what are you talking about?"

"The police never caught your brother's shooter."

"You leave Andy out of this."

Oliver knew he had to calm Diggle before his anger boiled over. "The bullets were laced with curare. That's Floyd Lawton's M.O. He is the sniper that I ran out of town at the Unidac auction."

"Oliver..."

"I'm giving you the chance to find him again...a chance to help other people's families. Do you remember when the people in this city helped each other? They can't do that anymore because of a group of people, people like my father; they see nothing wrong with raising themselves up by stepping on other people's throats. They need to be stopped, and if it's not gonna be the courts, and it's not gonna be the cops, then it's gonna be me. And, I hope, you."

_XXX_

The Hood's second meeting with Laurel had gone well. She'd turned up a name for him and a motive for Brodeur to want Camille dead. Matt Istook was certainly worth investing, but maybe not by him, not yet at least. Oliver had included Laurel in this, so maybe he could trust Felicity, not with everything quite yet though. Now he knew what to look for, there was definitely some room to find evidence of Brodeur's involvement in the murder without 'The Hood' having to fire a single arrow.

Oliver was beginning to get used to visiting Felicity's office at Queen Consolidated. He enjoyed seeing her like this; confident and in control, it was like she was a different person when she was working. He had taken to stopping by her office a little more often than necessary, bringing her lunch on days he knew she would forget to eat, or just showing up with any little IT problem that probably could have been solved with 5 minutes on Google. It had become a little ritual for the two of them, Oliver usually visited her at least once a day, arriving just before her lunch break and stayed with her until some problem forced her back to work. Oliver hadn't realised straight away that he was making up excuses to see her until Thea had called him out on it, but now Oliver was using more believable excuses to visit her, or at least that was what he told himself.

"Felicity?"

"Oliver?" He couldn't help but smile at the way she jumped at his arrival, it happened almost every time. "What's up?"

"Well, I was hoping you could help me with something."

_**September 29** _ _**th** _ _**2004** _

_"I was hoping you could help me with something."_

_"Please tell me this isn't another latte incident, Queen." The brunette looked at him with contempt, seemingly taking the idea of him damaging a computer as a personal insult._

_"Not exactly no." Oliver smiled, taking a seat on the opposite side of her desk._

_Felicity eyes him suspiciously over the top of her computer screen. Her hands moving away from the keyboard as she leaned back in her chair. "So you've broken another laptop but not with a latte this time?"_

_"What? No." Oliver couldn't figure out why she had this obsession with him breaking things. "I never really thanked you properly for helping me out the other week."_

_"So...?"_

_"So I was wondering where your favourite coffee shop around here was."_

_"My favourite coffee shop? Why?"_

_"Well because clearly you're a caffeine addict and I wanted to treat you to a coffee to say a proper thank you."_

_"Why do you think I'm a caffeine addict?"_

_Oliver started at her in disbelief before pointing at the pile of takeaway coffee cups building by the side of her desk. "That's why."_

_"I'm not letting you take me one a date, Queen."_

_It was starting to frustrate Oliver that Felicity seemed to be insisting on calling him by his last name, maybe he'd have to bring it up at some stage, if his relationship with her ever actually become anything more than a passing acquaintance, which he was really hoping it would. "Then what can I do to pay you back? There gotta be something."_

_True to Oliver's luck, Felicity's computer chose that moment to distract her. The machine started bleeping, causing Felicity to jump back onto the keyboard and a series of colourful expletives to fly from her mouth as she typed. Oliver sat in silence, watching her work for a few moments, until Felicity collapsed back into her chair with a groan of defeat._

_"What was that about?" Oliver grinned._

_"This stupid computer can't deal with some of the commands I'm trying to run, I just need..." Felicity trailed off "forget it, you wouldn't understand."_

_"Try me."_

_"Seriously, Queen, this is beyond you. To put it simply, short of finding a way to build a supercomputer, I'm screwed."_

_**Present Day** _

"Sure, what is it?"

This was where Oliver made the choice, sure Felicity would never really know she was helping 'The Hood' but this meant she was about to become a big part of his life. He was trusting her with information about a case, and hoping she wouldn't connect the dots. If Oliver could get Diggle on board, he might be able to make sure he was with Felicity for one or two Hood sightings, just to keep any suspicions she might develop at bay. Maybe he was getting ahead of himself but it knew this would need some planning. Felicity was inquisitive and she would eventually start connecting dots if Oliver kept coming to her for help. Between 'The Hood' being around before Oliver's return and the hypothetical future appearances of Diggle under the hood, Oliver was sure Felicity wouldn't get close without him realising.

"Well, I was taking with Tommy earlier and he mentioned that Laurel is working this Peter Declan thing. She thinks he's innocent but there's no proof. So I was hoping you could have a dig around in their system, maybe find something that could prove Jason Brodeur had motive to kill Camille Declan."

Felicity stared at Oliver in stunned silence for a moment, processing what he had said. "You're asking me to hack into another company's system to find evidence that Jason Brodeur is corrupt?"

"Yes..?"

"Of course. The guy always seemed creepy to me anyway, I'll take a look when I can and I'll let you know what I find."

_XXX_

Trusting Felicity had paid off, she'd found a deleted file of evidence proving Brodeur was guilty of toxic dumping and that Matt Istook had been payed to keep quiet about Camille taking to him. Despite Oliver trying to convince her he'd deliver the file directly to Laurel, Felicity had insisted on her being the one to anonymously give a digital copy of the file to the SCPD. Laurel had eventually got the evidence but by then Brodeur's lawyer was already countering her moves.

They'd lucked out though; the SCPD had used the evidence to get Istook to confess to getting a payoff for his silence. Brodeur and his lawyer had managed to convince the SCPD that the CEO had nothing to do with the payoff. Istook had only dealt with Brodeur's bodyguard, so he couldn't confirm that Brodeur was directly involved in the cover-up. Conveniently, the bodyguard had disappeared, and Oliver was ready to start the hunt for him after he'd questioned Brodeur himself.

And then Iron Heights had happened. The riot Brodeur's men had staged had almost ended up with Laurel getting hurt, but Oliver managed to save her, and Declan. Somehow Brodeur's bodyguard Ankov had made it into the prison in an attempt to silence Laurel himself, only to end up becoming a punching bag for Oliver, who managed to show a surprising amount of restraint given that Ankov was about to kill Laurel. Knowing he'd been caught out Ankov cut a deal and confessed to everything, sending himself and Brodeur to jail for a long time in the process.

It was early hours of the morning before Oliver was leaving the foundry, having left his outfit and equipment safely tucked away. He hadn't even got half at back to Felicity's penthouse when he had the call to head to Queen Mansion. He had to hide a smile when he arrived and saw John Diggle waiting for him.

"You here for the bodyguard position? Because the new guy just quit."

"No, I'm not. I'm here about the other position. Just to be clear, I'm not signing on to be a sidekick. But you're right. Fighting for this city needs to be done and you'll do this with or without me."

"Yeah."

"But with me...there'll be fewer casualties, including you."

"Diggle, I'm not looking for anybody to save me."

"Maybe not, but you need someone just the same. You are fight a war, Queen, except you have no idea what war does to you. How it scrapes off little pieces of your soul. And you need someone to remind you of who you are, not this thing you're becoming."


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a minor thing to start, because of what I've set up with Oliver already being in Starling as the Hood I've skipped over 'Damaged' completely, so most of the events, namely Oliver getting arrested, never happened, but Walter still asks Felicity for help with Tempest.

 

Oliver respected John Diggle, he really did, and John was proving to be incredibly skilled and a valuable ally. Today however made Oliver question just how patience he had for Diggle's misplaced notion of Oliver's heroism. First he'd insisted that Oliver could change his tactics from targeting the list and now Diggle had, successfully, convinced him to look into the serial bank robbers by throwing Stan Washington and his wife right in front of him.

It was difficult for Oliver to admit, but Diggle was beginning to get through to him. Between Felicity, though unintentionally, making him turn away from killing and Diggle constantly trying to encourage him to be a better version of himself, Oliver had begun to notice a change. A few months ago, he would never have even considered looking for justice outside of the list, he couldn't see any other way to honour his father's memory but Diggle was convinced otherwise. Part of Oliver said that the idea of going after bank robbers was a mistake, and yet another part was telling him that maybe this was a step towards being the better man that Felicity had always seen him as.

Breaking into SCPD had been an entertaining challenge, but Oliver had to marvel at how lacking the security was. If so much of his other life didn't revolve around breaking into police facilities, Oliver would be making a considerable donation to the SCPD. At least his break-in has been worthwhile, now he and Diggle had a good place to start looking for the robbers. The Reston's, a literal crime family. The quartet had been hitting banks for almost 3 years and Oliver wondered how much money they were intending on stealing before they finally packed it in.

It did pain Oliver that he was currently on his way, albeit late, to the Queen Mansion. He'd much rather have been in the foundry gathering information on the Reston's and trying to place their next hit. Regrettably his mother had convinced him, Thea and Felicity to sit down for lunch with the Bowens. None of the trio had wanted to, Oliver and Thea had never been fans of Carter. It had originally been a mild distaste on his and Thea's party because Moira seemed to find him to be the perfect child. Then, almost a year after Oliver and Felicity had become a couple; a drunken Carter had made a pass at Felicity at some college party they'd been attending. The teenage Oliver had, at Felicity's insistence, not punched Bowen but instead swore the insufferable jerk to be his nemesis. In retrospect Oliver realised how childish that had been, especially since he had actually had a real nemesis, or several, through his time on the island.

The reality of just how late he was hit Oliver as he walked through the main doors to the mansion and heard Carter commenting on his absence. Naturally Oliver also heard Felicity immediately jump to his defence.

"I'm sure he's..."

"Stuck in traffic." Oliver finished for her. "One of the things I didn't miss on the island? Sunday drivers." He joked, though the look Felicity threw him when he met her eye told him she didn't appreciate it.

The blonde always had a problem with his tendency to show up late to more or less anything, it was one of the many things she'd helped to 'normalise' when they'd been together. Though, Oliver had to admit, his parents had been a little insistent on that change in attitude too, it had been one of the various rules his father had set down when he and Felicity became a serious item.

Oliver took a pause to run his eyes over Felicity, there was something about her appearance that was nudging at him. Though he couldn't quite figure out what it was. On his second take it clicked, the leather jacket Felicity had on, he didn't know how he hadn't seen it straight away. Though he had to admit, it looked a lot better on her now Felicity was a blonde.

_**March 10** _ _**th** _ _**2007** _

_"This is for you." Ollie stated, dropping down to kiss Felicity on the cheek as he placed the parcel in her hands._

_He knew Felicity, mostly, hated him getting her presents. Birthdays, Christmases and other significant occasions were fine but, unlike any other girl he'd dated Felicity hated spur of the moment gifts. It was a difficult thing for him to unlearn, Ollie never saw the big deal about him spending money on her whenever he wanted, he had more than enough of it and wanted to share it with her. All the wealth in the world would have seemed redundant to him if he couldn't share it with Felicity. They'd ended up getting into a huge fight after Ollie bought a luxury apartment for them to move into at the start of the new semester. While Felicity had insisted they should rent somewhere that 'normal' people could afford, Ollie wanted her to be able to live her collage life in luxury. Needless to say the apartment hadn't been a welcome surprise to Felicity. Since that fight Oliver had stopped with spur of the moment gifts, until today at least._

_They were supposed to be meeting Laurel, Tommy and a few other friends for a much needed night on the town in less than an hour. While_

_Felicity had been getting ready, Ollie been trapped on a compulsory shopping trip with Thea, from which he'd only just returned, and the present now in his girlfriend's hands had caught his eye. Ollie had initially resisted but, after Thea had ensured him how great it would look on Felicity, he had relented._

_"Oliver, what have I told you about wasting your money on stupid gifts?" Felicity jumped to her feet and turned to face him, holding the present out as if to threaten him with it._

_"Look, 'Lis I know, but I was shopping with Thea, and I just couldn't stop thinking about you when I saw it." Ollie noticed that Felicity's expression hadn't mellowed at all. "Well at least open it and try it on. Please 'Lis, for me?"_

_Even though Felicity still had a scowl on her face she relented, pulling the paper away from the parcel in her hands. Once it was unwrapped, Felicity held the jacket out in front of her, seemingly appreciating it. With a reasonably reluctant nod, she shed the jacket already on her shoulders, replacing it with the new one. It was a tighter fit and was definitely more for style than practically but Felicity looked like she appreciated it._

_"You get a free pass this one time, Queen." Felicity turned back to him as she spoke "but only because Laurel said that bitch Hannah is going to be at the club tonight, and I look too damn good in this."_

_**Present Day** _

"Sorry I'm late." Oliver began to cover, leaning it to kiss Felicity on the cheek, followed by his mother and then embracing Thea in a hug, having to suppress a smile at her comment.

Oliver knew he'd have to deal with questions about the island at some point over the lunch but, shameless as ever, Carter jumped in straight away with his comments, reminding Oliver of the reason his teenage self had loathed the other man.

"How do you mean?" Oliver forced a response as he shook Carter's hand.

"Well," Carter took his seat as he began talking "billionaire scion, castaway for five years. You know, there is a bidding war on the rights to your life story. At least, that's what my agent says."

"Agent? I thought you were a neurosurgeon, Carter."

"I know, it's crazy right..." Carter began talking in some terms Oliver didn't understand; medicine wasn't one of his many talents. Oliver could patch himself up with a needle and that was about it. It was difficult to get over just how pompous Carter sounded when he spoke, the man must have known that nobody else around the table understood a word he said and yet he carried on talking. "Trying to make me the next Dr. Oz."

"Why would he want you to be a wizard?" Carter's statement seemed odd to Oliver, but the way the rest of the table began laughing told Oliver that this was yet another other reference he'd missed through his time on the island.

"For all our sakes, start reading US Weekly."

Oliver meet Felicity eyes and it seemed she already knew what he was after. The blonde threw him her classic 'I'll explain later' look, something Oliver has become very accustomed to over the years. All the times he'd been with Felicity and her friends when they started geeking out about computer stuff had resulted in her learning exactly when he needed something explaining to him. Though a younger Oliver had taken a liking to listening to Felicity 'talk shop', it brought out a different side of her, and Oliver was more than content to sit there and listen to her babbles.

"Well, the truth is, I feel it's out duty as Starling City's more fortunate to help those most in need." As Carter finished speaking Felicity gave Oliver another of her signature looks, however this one was the 'this guy is a colossal ass' look. Which Oliver knew all too well, because it was directed at him for the first few months of his knowing her.

"Wouldn't you agree, Oliver?"

"You're the hero, Carter." Oliver was almost praying the gang hit another bank, he needed to get away from Carter before he started getting creative with the silverware.

"Oh, don't be so modest, Oliver." Felicity's voice cut across his thoughts. "You all heard about the police officer who got shot at that bank robbery yesterday? Well Oliver is paying to have him treated at Starling General instead of County."

It was Oliver's turn to give Felicity a look, this one was his 'you're going to regret that' look, though a much less threatening version of the one his alter ego used. He knew exactly why Felicity had raised his charity, she was trying to prove a point to the Bowens, and Oliver had to admit it is entertaining to watch Carter's reaction. True to her nature, Felicity responded to his silent threat by subtly sticking her tongue out at him, though nobody else at the table noticed given they were all looking at Oliver.

"Oliver, why didn't you say anything?" Moira questioned.

"Well I just didn't think it was that big a deal, I'm sure any of you would have done the same."

"So now that you're back what are your plans?" Carter's mother began. "Will you be taking a job at Queen Consolidated?"

"I'm opening a nightclub." Oliver enjoyed the reactions his blunt statement had on the people around the table. His sister's laughter, the Bowen's shock and what looked like pride from Felicity. It did pull at something in him when his mother's almost disappointed expression became obvious.

Thankfully for Oliver, Diggle chose then to enter the room. "Sir, your liquor distributor's on the line." The bodyguard announced almost a little too loudly, before leaning in so only Oliver would hear him. "First bank of Starling was hit two minutes ago."

"Sorry, business."

_XXX_

"You know, if it wasn't for the fact we were an item before the island, people would be talking and not the good kind of talking."

"Felicity." Oliver chided the blonde, taking a seat opposite her.

"I'm serious Oliver; do you have any idea the amount of rumours that were going around after I got promoted? And that was after you were dead." Felicity visibly went a little red at her comment "I mean not dead, like I guess missing, you know what I mean. But still, people talk, Oliver."

"I doubt people are thinking that we're hooking up during your lunch break, Felicity."

Oliver knew full well the extent of the rumours that had circulated in his absence. A few nights ago, when Thea had confronted him about his regular lunches with Felicity, he had been informed of the full cruelty of both QC's employees and the Starling City gossip columns. A lot of people seemed to have thought that Felicity's quick rise to head of IT was a payoff of some kind, that she was being bribed to keep quiet about some aspect of her and Oliver's relationship. Of course it had been pure speculation but the reasons for the alleged cover-up had ranged from Oliver having affairs and illegitimate children to Felicity being pregnant, although that last one had been proven wrong a few months after he disappeared.

It hadn't helped that Walter had been personally mentoring Felicity through her time at QC, from her first day as an intern to her first day as head of IT he'd been there. Oliver was glad that Felicity had someone to help her out, but the press had spun it as nepotism, making Felicity's life even harder. It was around that time, Oliver learned, that she had moved into the penthouse, despite Thea's insistence Felicity stayed at Queen Mansion. Oliver couldn't blame her for wanting to get away; he knew how hard his mother had been on Felicity when they'd first starting dating. If it hadn't been for his father taking such a liking to her, Oliver would have doubted whether his mother would have ever warmed up to Felicity.

"Well people do talk, Oliver. It's the same kinda 'she's sleeping her way to the top' crap that made me move into the penthouse so I could get away from the press." Oliver could see how much this was getting to Felicity and it tore him up, knowing that he was to blame, at least in part.

"Look, Felicity," Oliver began, reaching across the table to take her hand in his "I know this must be really hard for you; I remember how long it took you to adjust to the press following is all the time back in collage. If you want, I'll stop dropping by so often."

The warm smile that crossed Felicity lips when he held her hand was one Oliver could not miss. He couldn't help but appreciate the rosy red that spread across her cheeks either, marvelling at how the shade almost matched her pink shirt.

"I think we both know you'd never manage to keep away, Oliver." She offered him a bright smile as she spoke. "So seeing as you brought me coffee and no lunch, I'm guessing you need another favour?"

"You know, sometimes I worry about how well you know me."

"At this stage I should add 'personal internet researcher for Oliver Queen' to my job title." Felicity teased with a grin as she opened her laptop.

"His name is Derek Reston. We were friends before I...went away and I want to get back in touch."

"Really? I thought I'd met all of your friend when we were in collage." Felicity grinned at him as she typed. One of her other favourite points to tease Oliver about was his lack of any serious friends apart from Tommy, she never really counted Laurel back then. Mostly that had been because Laurel wasn't around often, and when she was the woman hardly ever took her eyes off Tommy. "Guess you didn't have Facebook on that island."

"Nope." Oliver rolled his eyes as Diggle chose that moment to enter the room; the man seemed to have a knack for comedic timing on top of his other skills. "Not even a Myspace account; it was a very dark time."

"Well there's not much here that's recent. No credit activity, no utility bills." Felicity paused briefly. "Oh, I guess you guys must have met at the factory."

"Wait, what factory?" Oliver couldn't stop the question in time, even though he knew it would only raise even more suspicion with Felicity.

"The Queen steel factory. Derek Reston worked there for 15 years until it shut down in '07."

"Derek Reston worked for my father?" Oliver could already feel the guilt, if Reston worked for his father then that meant at least some of the responsibility for the Reston family's actions fell to him.

"You weren't really friends, huh?" Oliver couldn't meet Felicity's eyes; he still hated lying to her. "Looks like Derek was the factory foreman until Robert outsourced production to China. About fifteen-hundred employees got laid off. Looks like the finance guys even found a loophole in the union contracts so they didn't have to pay severance packages and pensions to their employees. They all pretty much lost their homes, including your friend."

Oliver knew he was pushing his luck, Felicity was seeing too far into the life of his dark passenger. If he'd had any idea that Reston worked for his father then he never would have gone to Felicity. She was getting to close; he was letting her get too close. A part of Oliver couldn't deny that he was taking the risk on purpose, that maybe he'd slip up and have to confess the truth to her. It wasn't his ideal scenario though. The way Oliver saw it, once all the names on the list were crossed and Starling was back to the way it should be, then he could retire the hood. Maybe then he could go back to Felicity and have things as they once were. Or maybe that was just a dream that he needed to wake up from.

_XXX_

Oliver had tried; at least he could honestly say that. He'd done everything he could to give the Reston's a fair chance to turn back from the path they'd chosen, a chance he didn't give very many people. It was his father's fault that the Reston's had becoming criminals, and after Robert's death that responsibility passed onto him. Oliver felt a degree of guilt, he knew he had the chance to make things right and he'd offered the olive branch to the Reston's, but it hadn't worked. He and Diggle knew they were going to try another score, they didn't know the where or the when, but they were ready.

If it hadn't been for Tommy's fundraiser, Oliver would have already been patrolling. It was only under Felicity's insistence that he attended and, after having her research Reston under false pretences, Oliver couldn't say no to her request. It also gave him a chance to try and patch things up with his mother and Thea after he bailed early on dinner with the Bowens, though he wasn't holding out too much hope on rebuilding bridges.

Naturally, Oliver was arriving late. He and Diggle had stayed at the foundry as long as possible before leaving to attend the gala. The routine felt all too familiar for him, before the island Ollie had a tendency for showing up to these events late, he had always liked to make an entrance. Tonight however Oliver was trying to get into the gala with a little more subtly the usual, hoping to avoid the scornful gaze of his mother as well as the usual tedious pleasantries of these charity events.

Oliver had to admit Tommy did a good job of organising the fundraiser, though just from the decor he could tell Laurel had a big hand in some of the choices. The room was filled with Starling's elite, it was impressive that so many people had turned up to donate to a charity in the Glades, especially since Oliver already recognised at least two people who were on the list. In a room like this, Oliver's eyes would have typically found Felicity before anyone else, but tonight Oliver had managed to catch Carter Bowen pulling Laurel away for a dance, leaving Tommy looking a little distressed.

"Ouch." Oliver put a hand on Tommy's shoulder as he walked up to him. "You know I never did hit Carter for that stunt he tried pull with Felicity, I could always collect on that debt if you wanted?"

Oliver knew how hard it would have been for Tommy to let Carter walk away with Laurel on his arm, even if he was reasonably sure Laurel wouldn't look twice at the insufferable jerk. It was a feeling he was familiar with, another one of the more painful memories from his early days with Felicity. When he first started getting to know her, she was far from a fan, in fact she regularly made of point of reminding him of the fact.

Oliver could recall with perfect clarity that first party he invited her to, more accurately the first party invite from him she accepted. That night, Felicity had more than willingly danced with every guy that asked her, even though she was Oliver's 'date'. Of course he hadn't helped his case much when, in a moment of jealousy, he'd snuck (Oliver had to admit that 'snuck' wasn't the right word, he'd quite loudly and shamelessly announced his departure) away from the party to sleep with some girl whose name he could no longer remember.

"Thanks Ollie, I might be taking you up on that one before the end of the night." Tommy grinned at him, though Oliver recognised how forced it was.

It was the same smile Oliver rehearsed every day, the smile he gave to almost everyone in his life. Everyone expected the blonde who his eyes were now almost desperately searching for. Oliver turned his attention back to Tommy, knowing his best friend would need a little reassurance to stop him hitting the bar.

"This whole thing is great though, Tommy. I'm sure Laurel really appreciates it, even if she is dancing with the biggest ass in the room."

"Yeah," Tommy trailed off "So I was thinking we could swing by the club tomorrow, I've got a few more ideas I wanna throw around with you."

"Sounds great Tommy I just..." Oliver froze up a little when his eyes finally found Felicity.

She was clad in a floor length blue gown, a long slit running down her leg on the right side, finished with matching heels. Felicity's hair was in loose curls over her shoulders and contact lenses replaced her glasses. Oliver realised that Tommy had obviously noticed the effect she was having on him, when he heard a loud laugh followed by Tommy pushing him across the room and towards Felicity.

"I'll see you tomorrow, bro."

Oliver barely registered what Tommy said as he walked up to Felicity. Taking a brief pause to admire her appearance again, Oliver took her hands in his, brightly smiling at her. Oliver hardly gave Felicity a choice when he pulled her onto the dance floor. Typical to his luck, the music changed from the upbeat dance music to a slower ballad. Felicity giggled at him as Oliver took her hands, the two of them gently swaying together as opposed to dancing.

"You look beautiful by the way." Oliver whispered into her ear when he was sure no one else would hear him.

"You clean up pretty well yourself." Felicity smiled up at him.

_**October 7** _ _**th** _ _**2006** _

_"Ollie," Felicity whispered giggle sank into Ollie's ears. "It's a ballad, your hands are meant to be on my waist."_

_"They are." Ollie grinned at the brunette._

_"That's not my waist and you know it, Queen." Her teasing tone did nothing to move Ollie; in fact it only encouraged his actions._

_The duo were attending yet another of QC's galas, it was becoming a pain that Ollie's father was insisting on them attending these events so regularly. Robert's excuse was that when Ollie took over at QC he'd need to know all the big investors and partners that the company was aligned with._

_Thankfully, this event was being held in the Queen Mansion, away from the prying cameras of the press. It made them feel as though they were invisible, the stuffed shirts in the room were too busy drinking and signing checks to notice the young couple on the busy dance floor. Naturally, Ollie's mother had hired a live string quartet, the music forcing a more intimate dance than the usual club tunes they were used to._

_"So what, Smoak? You going to do anything about it?" Ollie smirked._

_"Oliver?!" Felicity's mock scold came breathy across his ears. "People might see us."_

_"And?" Ollie dropped his head down so his lips were practically pressed against her ear. "Felicity all I can think about right now is getting you to my room and getting you out of that dress."_

_"As delightful as that sounds I think we might have a little trouble sneaking away," her movements were so subtle that Oliver was sure nobody else in the room noticed, but Felicity had purposely pressed herself flush into him, so Oliver could feel every exposed inch of her flesh. "and besides I thought you liked this dress on me?" Felicity looked up at him, her voice practically dripping with the sultry undertones of her comment._

_Oliver didn't miss the redness that was flush across her cheeks. A redness that had visibly spread from her cheeks, down her neck and disappeared beneath her dress mid-way down her chest. Even though Felicity would respond to his teasing and some, she was always far more bashful about it than he was. Oliver knew exactly how far that blush went, but at that moment all he could think about was seeing it with his own eyes._

_The dress his girlfriend was wearing didn't help. It was black, knee length, with a plunging neckline (telling him she definitely wasn't wearing a bra), that fit her just a little too tightly. It showed off her curves in ways that Ollie was almost uncomfortable with given that every man, and some of the women, in the room had checked her out._

_"I love you in that dress, I also think out look so much better out of it."_

_**Present Day** _

The two continued to sway for a while before Oliver decided to break the silence again. "I can't say I've seen that dress on you before, new?"

"This thing? I got it for one of the QC charity galas last year, honestly I've been waiting for an excuse to wear it again."

"Well I'm certainly glad you did."

A comfortable silence fell over the two as they danced, neither of them spoke again until the song ended, at which point Oliver relented that he had to go work the room, or else face his mother's wrath. The Queen Matriarch was his first point of call, and Oliver hoped he might be able to smooth things over with her after his disappearance during lunch the previous day.

It wasn't a surprise to Oliver when Diggle arrived, informing him that the gang was about to hit another bank. It seemed to Oliver that the universe had something against him making peace with his mother. Without a hesitation, but with a reasonably terrible excuse for leaving, Oliver turned and eased for the exit with Diggle. Just before they made it out the doors, Felicity caught the pair.

"Oliver? You're leaving?"

"Something came up at the club, I'm sorry." Oliver tried to keep the excuse short; he needed to get to the bank quickly.

He leant in and pressed a kiss to Felicity's cheek, promising he'd see her at home if he didn't make it back before the gala ended, and then ran out the door.

_XXX_

Dead.

Derek Reston was dead.

He didn't deserve it, of that Oliver was sure. The man had managed to die with honour, even after everything he'd done. Reston gave his life to save his son, as any father would, Oliver thought. Reston left behind two sons and a wife, all of whom were now in police custody and waiting trial for all the robberies.

Diggle had been right in the end. There was more than one way to honour his father's memory, Oliver righted one of his father's wrongs without the list and for that, he was...well maybe proud wasn't the right word. Oliver had to make peace with the rest of his family now, as well as Tommy. He hadn't had a chance to drop of a check for CNRI before he left, that was probably the simplest thing he had to fix after tonight. Oliver needed to find a way to get back some normality to his other life, to get his family back under control. Though that was going to take a lot more work to fix than anything on the list.

And that, was saying something.

_XXX_

Screw this club. And screw Oliver Queen.

Felicity walked through the foyer of the soon-to-be club, dropping her purse down onto a pile of wooden planks which were stacked against one wall. She should have guessed Oliver was lying to her when he said he was leaving the gala on urgent club business. Not that it mattered; she'd guessed he wasn't really going to the club every time he and Diggle disappeared. Jeez, she's rather Oliver not bother trying to be there for their family at all if he was constantly going to lie them.

Okay so maybe that was a little harsh. At least she had her tablet. Thank God. She could find where Oliver was and give him a serious lecture when she got her hands on him. She just needed to get through an access point that wasn't buried beneath fifteen layers of paranoid-rich-guy encryption. Why did a club that wasn't even open yet need this kinda encryption anyway?

Damn it! We're not all billionaires, Oliver. Some of us need to be able to just use a network without having to hack through the security first. In fact, Felicity decided, didn't Oliver owe her a little unauthorized net access from time to time?

Felicity started pacing as she worked her way through the security protocol on the club's internal network, it was good but not a match for her skills in the slightest. It hardly took any time before she broke through the final layer and then -

Huh.

What was Entrance 2? The signal was strong, close by. Even stronger than the club network, in fact.

"What the hell?" Felicity mumbled aloud as she tore its defences apart.

She felt it before she heard anything. A cold guest of air as the wall beside her swung open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to bring the big reveal forward a little, this wasn't going to happen until the episode 'Vertigo' but I decided I couldn't wait that long. For the Batman fans among you I actually based, and by based I mean stole, that final section from 'Masquerade' - a City Story from Batman: Arkham Knight.
> 
> I'm also pretty tempted to write in a flashback about the whole Carter incident I mentioned here, let me know if that's something that you guys would like to see pop up later on.


	9. Chapter 9

 

_What was Entrance 2? The signal was strong, close by. Even stronger than the club_

_network, in fact._

_"What the hell?" Felicity mumbled aloud as she tore its defences apart._

_She felt it before she heard anything. A cold guest of air as the wall beside her swung open._

Felicity stood frozen. She'd just uncovered a secret door in the wall of her ex-boyfriend's club. Whatever it was Felicity had been expecting to find, it certainly wasn't that. She wasn't sure exactly how long she stood before the newly revealed passageway but Felicity was pulled from her trance by the sounds of hushed voices coming from beyond the door. That was concerning. The voices didn't sound fearful, or thankful, at discovery, they sounded tactical. It reminded Felicity of the near silent communication that went on in military operations.

"Oliver, what the hell are you up to?" Felicity mumbled under her breath as she tentatively approached the door.

It was dark, which was the first thing she noted, the only light illuminating what lay beyond the door seemed to be coming from a basement. Taking a deep breath, Felicity crossed over the threshold, her high heels clicking against the metallic surface she stepped onto. It was impossible for her to deny that she'd caught Oliver doing some bad things over the years, but hiding a secret basement in his soon to be club was definitely topping the list right now. As her eyes caught the stairs, Felicity paused.

If she took these last few steps, then she would just have to accept whatever consequences came with it. This was her last chance to turn back, she could walk away now and confront Oliver about whatever was happening here on her ground. Then she remembered the voices she'd heard, whoever they were, they would be unlikely to let her just turn and run away, not that Felicity could run far in 6 inch heels anyway.

"What's the worst that could happen, Felicity?" The blonde began to mumble aloud, she almost shocked herself when she spoke. Felicity knew that she only ever referred to herself in the third-person when she was seriously frightened or incredibly happy, and she could safely say that on this occasion it was the former. "Whatever it is down there, you can be pretty sure you've already caught Oliver doing something worse."

Then, in what Felicity would agree was one of her more painful habits, she started an internal debate of her options. Felicity knew that this was her chance for answers, for her to figure out what secrets Oliver had been keeping from her since his return. It did pain Felicity that there had been so many secrets between Oliver and herself in the previous weeks, especially after how close they had been before his disappearance. Deciding that she no longer had a choice in the matter, Felicity turned to face the stairwell. With one final glance back towards the soon-to-be club she began to walk.

_XXX_

"Diggle." Oliver called out to his ally in a whisper.

The ex-soldier turned on his heel to face the archer, as the latter jumped to his feet. Diggle was just about to leave the foundry when Oliver heard the sound, a faint click that would have been inaudible to anyone who had less trained senses than him. The door built into the factory wall had been opened, someone had found them. No one apart from he and Diggle knew that door existed. The only other person who used the factory was Tommy, and Oliver highly doubted his best friend would be able to get through the door even if he had somehow managed to find it. He'd installed military level encryption on that lock; anyone trying to open it would have needed serious skills.

Oliver moved quickly, heading over to his equipment table and grabbing his bow from its case. Knowing they were short on time, Oliver pulled his hood up, not adding his usual grease paint. He did, however, grab the voice modulator which he had become particularly partial to over the last few weeks. If anyone had discovered the foundry by accident, between the hood and the modulator Oliver could still keep his identity hidden.

"Oliver, what is it?" Diggle spoke in hushed tones, already drawing his gun.

"The factory door just opened someone's here." Oliver nocked an arrow as he spoke, moving to take a position in front of the stairs.

"What?!" Diggle moved to Oliver's side, the duo prepared to defend their secret against whoever came down the stairs.

Drawing his bow, Oliver took aim at the staircase, unable to make out who was stood at the top. The lights in the club were off, so all Oliver could see was shadows. Footsteps began to echo into the foundry. Whoever had found them was on their way down. That made Oliver reasonably sure that whoever it was, hadn't actually been aware of the foundry's existence. The footsteps sounded tentative, as if whoever they belonged to was afraid of what they were walking into. So he and Diggle had the advantage, at least that allowed Oliver to relax a little of the tension he was feeling. Worry was practically radiating from Diggle as well; Oliver could sense how concerned the ex-soldier was, if someone they couldn't trust came down those stairs, he and Diggle were sincerely screwed. Then, Oliver froze. It just took the sight of the blue high heels and the gown fliting against the edge of the metal steps to tell him who their mystery invader was.

Felicity.

She'd found them. Somehow, she'd managed to figure out where Oliver was sneaking off to during the night. She had found him and his precarious house of cards was about to come tumbling down around him. It wasn't until she took the last step down onto the foundry floor that Felicity finally laid her eyes him. He'd have thought she'd look more intimidated, she had Starling's vigilante pointing an arrow at her chest and yet, somehow, she looked more confused than afraid.

Oliver knew he didn't have much time to turn the situation to his advantage, in fact he quite literally had no time at all. One wrong move and it was all over, Felicity would know who he really was and the mission would be over. Oliver had known, or at least suspected, that Felicity would figure out who he was eventually, she knew him that well after all. It hadn't factored anywhere into Oliver's plan that Felicity would find the truth to his secret this soon, he'd have to improvise. Tonight, one way or another, for better or for worse, everything changed.

"Don't move." Oliver growled, the voice modulator hopefully disguising him well enough.

It physically pained him to be aiming an arrow at Felicity, especially when he knew that he was aiming centre mass, for a kill shot. He had to make it look convincing, somehow he just knew that Felicity would be able to tell if he wasn't really aiming at her. Oliver took a pause to study Felicity, she looked shocked, practically frozen and Oliver could almost see the gears turning in her head as she looked at him.

"What the fuck, Oliver?!"

Yep, he was screwed.

"I don't..." Oliver tried to begin to cover for himself but Felicity was clearly not taking any more of his excuses.

"Even if I didn't already know it was you under that hood, Diggle is stood right there! I'm not an idiot!" Felicity exclaimed.

Oliver turned his head to look at Diggle, who seemed to be just as shocked as he was by Felicity's arrival. Unlike Oliver, Diggle had already lowered his weapon, a rare look of defeat briefly crossing the ex-soldiers face. Taking his ally's lead, Oliver slowly lowered his bow, relaxing the drawstring and removing the nocked arrow. His defences were crumbling around him. Unsure of how to proceed, Oliver took a step back, attempting to give Felicity a little room so she didn't feel trapped. Clearly the blonde didn't appreciate his actions. Before Oliver could register what was happening, Felicity marched across the room and pulled his hood down, leaving Oliver even more stunned.

"What were you thinking? You're parading around the city with a bow and arrow trying to take on criminals? What you spent a couple of years away from civilisation and then…" Felicity trailed off, briefly going silent, which seriously frightened Oliver. "Jesus, Oliver!"

Instead of giving her any kind of answer, Oliver turned to Diggle. The ex-soldier seemed to know what Oliver was about to ask, already holstering his gun. "Diggle, could you give us the room."

He watched in silence as Diggle nodded and headed away from the former couple, the bodyguard disappeared up the stairs to the club and Oliver remained silent until he heard the door click shut. Swallowing hard, Oliver took a tentative step towards Felicity.

"Felicity, I…" Now the moment was there, Oliver didn't know what to tell her. He'd rehearsed this conversation in his head a hundred times but now, he couldn't find any words.

"Six months." Felicity's voice was barely a whisper when she started speaking, though her tepidness didn't last long. "The Hood showed up in Starling 6 fucking months before you did! Were you happy to let us all think you were dead, Oliver? What was going through that thick skull of yours when you decided this was a good idea?!"

Oliver hadn't realised how close he and Felicity had gotten while she'd been shouting at him. The blonde was practically pressed up against him, her hands balled in the leather of his jacket. Taking a step back, Oliver placed his bow down on one of the tables, giving himself a chance to take Felicity's hands in his. Swallowing hard, Oliver knew that he probably only had this one chance to convince Felicity that he wasn't the man the police and the press thought he was.

"NO!" Felicity all but shouted when Oliver tried to take her hands, she pulled sharply away from him, retreating a few paces.

He was a little taken aback by her severe reaction, Oliver had been expecting…well he wasn't at all sure what he'd been expecting. There wasn't exactly a textbook on how to tell your ex-girlfriend that you were a wanted vigilante. The anger on Felicity's face changed to what could only be described as loathing. Even after 'The Hood' had saved her following his homecoming, it seemed Felicity wasn't in a sympathetic mood. Maybe Oliver had been wrong, it looked like Felicity had already made her judgments about him, and clearly they didn't have the outcome he had been hoping for.

"Felicity." Oliver tried, taking a step towards her.

The blonde retreated once again, causing Oliver to stop in his tracks. He didn't want to make her anymore afraid than she clearly was already. This was beyond foreign to Oliver. He had gone through a lot of different stages of Felicity's emotion towards him; they'd done hate, repulsion, outright loathing, respect, love, adoration, but Oliver had never seen her look at him as though she was fearful of him.

"You're a killer, you're…stay the hell away from me, Oliver. Don't try to come to the penthouse, just…stay away."

Oliver realised there was nothing he could do. He'd just lost Felicity. He stood there in silence as the blonde fled back up the stairs to the club. It was over. Felicity had always been the end to the mission, Oliver had wanted to go back to her once he'd finished with the list. He could have been normal again, been with Felicity and done all the things he had promised her before the island. Now that was a dead dream, now the mission didn't have an end for him. Taking a few steps back, something felt…different. As if the last real piece of Oliver Queen had just died.

_XXX_

"Oliver, man you've gotta stop."

Diggle had been trying to hold things together, he really had. Felicity's surprise arrival in the foundry after the incident with the Reston's had thrown them both of their game. Though naturally, Diggle acknowledged, Oliver was taking it a lot worse than he was. The archer had thrown himself into the mission over the last few days, some of the names on Robert Queen's list were taking a serious beating. Thankfully Oliver hadn't slipped back into his old routine of dropping bodies, for which Diggle would be endlessly thankful for.

He couldn't shy the fact that there had been a marked change in The Hood's attitudes since Oliver's official return to Starling City. The least of which was that he'd completely stopped killing, which made a welcome change from the 30 or so bodies The Hood had left bind over just 6 months. Despite himself, Diggle did want to thank Felicity for that fact, he knew for certain that it was as a result of the blonde's interference that Oliver had changed the rulebook. Being part of the Queen family security detail meant that Diggle had been able to see Felicity's witness statement from the night of Oliver's 'welcome home' party. A statement that explicitly said that, on her instance, The Hood spared the lives of Felicity's attackers. When Oliver had later told him that he never wanted to have Felicity look at 'the real him' as a killer, Diggle understood. He realised that Oliver really did see himself as two separate people, though that never help when the archer began referring to himself in the third person. Diggle was always going to find that creepy.

It did help him understand just how lost Oliver was feeling. The younger man had turned into a different person over the last few days, and Diggle knew it. Oliver Queen was still the charming, eccentric playboy but any time the duo were away from the public-eye, especially when they were in the foundry, The Hood took over. Oliver had been working himself to the bone, spending as little time as possible actually being the real Oliver Queen. It didn't escape Diggle's notice that he'd started spending his nights at the foundry too. After Felicity had kicked him out of the penthouse, Diggle knew that Oliver wouldn't be able to return to the Queen Mansion without drawing undue attention to his and Felicity's…personal situation.

Diggle's most recent arrival at the foundry marked the 12th occasion in the last 3 days that he had entered the lair to see Oliver performing some ridiculously over-extenuating exercise. This current self-torture seemed to be Oliver's attempt to break a training dummy in half with sheer willpower. After silently observing Oliver for a few moments, Diggle had known that he needed to step in.

"I'm fine, John." Oliver brushed off Diggle's warning.

"Oliver you're not fine," Diggle pulled the archer away from the training dummy as he spoke "I know I said I'd give you some space to deal with his Felicity thing but, clearly, you're not actually dealing with it."

Oliver's lack of response was beginning to get to Diggle. "Damn it, Oliver. You can't self-destruct over this, she just needs some time. Hell, we haven't had the cops showing up to arrest us, and from personal experience I can tell you that means she's not as royally pissed at you as it seems."

"Digg…this isn't about Felicity coming to grips with this part of me."

"Then what is it about, Oliver?"

"The way she looked at me, that…she looked at me the same way she looked at The Hood a few months back. Digg, I told you that if she ever saw me like that…I don't know how to stop her seeing the killer every time she looks at me."

"This is the same Felicity Smoak that, at least every time I've seen you around each other, looks at you like there's no one else in the room with you, like you're still those teenage kids who fell in love." Diggle noticed Oliver begin to open his mouth in protest but continued, "And it is love, Oliver. Whether either of you admit it or not."

_XXX_

Queen Consolidated, the Queen family's shining dedication to industry right at the heart of Starling City. It was impossible not to feel at least a little intimidated by the sheer scale of the building. Even if you hated the man, you had to admit, Robert Queen really knew how to make an impression. Thankfully, today's visit to the building was going to be limited to the IT department, more specifically the office of babbling blonde who headed up the department.

Getting Felicity free during office hours had becoming increasingly difficult, she seemed to be taking on more and more work. Especially after Walter left for his trip to Australia, Felicity had practically inherited most of the CEO's responsibility, which was precisely why this day's visit was going to be so important.

"Looks like someone forgot about lunch with her sister-in-law." Thea teased as she pushed her way into Felicity's office.

"Thea!" The blonde all but screamed, jumping up from her chair. "How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that? And you can't just walk into my office like this anymore, I'm the head of IT now."

"Okay, so one," Thea lazily dropped down into the chair opposite Felicity and placed her feet on the blonde's desk. "I'm never going to stop calling you that because I'm still convinced Ollie totally would have proposed if he didn't, you know...die for 5 years. And two; my name is on the building, I can totally burst in on you like this whenever I want."

Thea briefly enjoyed watching the scowl that begin to make its way over Felicity's face, before it subsided into a look of mild irritation. The two women had become even closer in Oliver's absence than they were back when he and Felicity had been an actual couple. Sure, Felicity had been distant at times, during the early days the blonde had thrown herself into studying and working, leaving Thea to cope mostly alone. Since then, the youngest Queen had managed to forgive Felicity for her coping method, Thea had learnt the hard way that everyone had to deal with grief in their own fashion.

It took almost a year after the disappearance for Felicity and Thea to start to become friends again. Felicity had just shown up at the mansion and all but demanded that the two of them go shopping, that trip had been the first time in a year the youngest Queen actually laughed. Thea guessed that the blonde must have finally realised how hard she'd been taking the deaths of her brother and father.

_**November 8** _ _**th** _ _**2008** _

_"Thea?" Felicity slowly pushed the door to the younger girl's room open._

_Oliver had been missing for over a year, and the search had been all but abandoned. The only reason there was still any hope of her boyfriend being found was because of the money and resources that the Queen family had access to._

_They had all handled the loss in their own way. Tommy had become even more of a party boy, Moira had all but shut herself from the outside world, Felicity had dedicated her life to work, and Thea... well Felicity had no idea how Thea was coping. Despite the two move close friends living in the same house (not that Felicity could ever actually accept the mansion as just a house) Felicity had hardly had an actual conversation with Thea in almost a year. Part of Felicity blamed that on how much Thea reminded her of Oliver, something she shouldn't have let the younger girl suffer as a result of._

_The guilt of that had finally struck the blonde when she'd returned to the mansion much later than usual to find Thea crying to herself, alone in her room. What made Felicity feel even worse was that she hadn't had the courage to go into the younger girl's room, she'd walked away, not knowing how to help. Felicity hadn't slept that night. She spent the whole night receiving a scolding from an internal conscience, which had decided to take the voice of Oliver for this particular lecture. It hadn't helped that Felicity knew just how much Oliver adored his sister, hell she knew he'd changed his entire lifestyle for Thea's sake right before he and Felicity even met._

_The internal lecture hadn't fallen on deaf ears, which was the precise reason Felicity was now stood in Thea's bedroom. It was mid-afternoon, but the youngest Queen was still wrapped in her bedsheets._

_"Speedy?" Felicity tried again._

_That had made Thea stir. Felicity knew it was a little cruel to invoke the adorable nickname that Oliver had invented for his sister, but it served its purpose. Thea rolled over and sat up a little in her bed._

_"What?" Thea's monotone response reminded Felicity of the fact that she'd all but ignored the girl for the last year._

_"I've heard that there's a new designer dress shop opened in Starling..." The blonde started._

_"So what?"_

_So maybe Thea was a little more pissed at her than Felicity had realised. "So I was thinking we could go down there, try some dresses, then hit the town?" Thea stayed silent, giving Felicity no response. "Oh, and I totally swiped Tommy's cash card for us to buy all those dresses with."_

_The smirk that invaded Thea's lips at that last comment did not go amiss to Felicity, in fact, it managed to take over her own smile too._

_**Present Day** _

"Sorry Thea, I guess I've just been having a bad day, you kinda threw me off there." Felicity visibly began to relax as she spoke.

"Great, that means we can still make lunch." Thea chimed.

"I don't think I can take the time, Speedy, I've got a lot of stuff to be getting on with here. Between actually running the IT department and covering what I can for Walter, I've got a bunch of server issues and…." Thea began to zone out as Felicity rambled off the list of seemingly complicated IT technobabble. Anyone else would have accepted the list of reasons the blonde was giving for wanting to bail on their lunch date, but Thea knew better. "So I really can't do today, Thea."

"And what did Ollie do to piss you off?"

Thea grinned a little at the sheer expression of shock that took over Felicity's features at her blunt comment. After seeing the relationship between Felicity and her brother for almost two years, Thea had become pretty adept at telling when Felicity really wasn't in the mood to do something and when she was just angry because of something Oliver had done. There was a pretty distinct difference, which had a lot to do with the ' _I love him but I'm totally about to kill him'_ look Felicity was oh-so terrible at hiding. It had only taken Thea three meetings with the then-brunette and her brother to figure that particular giveaway, something for which the youngest Queen was particularly proud.

"I never said this had anything to do with Oliver." Felicity was good at a lot of things, but lying to Thea had never been one of them.

"You  _so_ didn't have to." Thea didn't even try to hide the amusement in her voice.

With a relenting sigh, Felicity sunk back into her chair. As much as she'd never admit it, Thea was already beginning to get bored of the  _'will they, won't they'_ thing that had been going on between the girl opposite her and Oliver since his return. The two had practically bounced right back into their old routine, the subtle yet shameless flirting in public and lunch dates at QC, let alone the fact that they were living together. Yet they both insisted that they were 'just friends', which, as far as Thea was concerned, was a bare-faced lie.

Felicity had stayed silent after she'd returned to her seat, making Thea decide to push a little more. "Come on, 'Lis, talk to me." When the blonde, in an incredibly unique fashion, remained voiceless, Thea continued. "Look, I get that Ollie's been a total jerk since he got back, but you're acting like he's just killed your favourite kitten. He's not that bad."

If they hadn't been sat so close, Thea would have missed Felicity's mumble. "If only you knew."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Thea was already beginning to get tired of Felicity's intentional smokescreen.

"Thea, it doesn't matter." Now Thea was done with dealing with Felicity's crap.

"The hell it doesn't." The younger girl all but shouted. "Felicity, after all the crap the two of you went through before, I can't really see how whatever it is he's done can be really that bad."

"Thea…" Felicity's voice rose to match that of Thea's, but that wasn't stopping her.

"No, Felicity. Whatever's going on between the two of you, fix it. Just think about what happened to him Lis'," Thea's own voice began to mellow as she spoke. "He spent five years fighting just to stay alive. The guy Ollie was when he left wouldn't have survived that, so maybe the man we got back isn't the same anymore but could you really say that any of us would be in his place?"

It was impossible to miss the wave of guilt that passed over Felicity. "I'm sorry, Thea."

The younger girl smiled a little. "I don't want you to be sorry 'Lissy, just think about what I said."

And Felicity certainly did.

_XXX_

It was another two days before Oliver finally began to accept that fact that Felicity might not actually change her mind about him. He had listened to Diggle's advice, he'd given her space and trusted her to come to a decision about his dark passenger on her own. Right now it was beginning to look like she wasn't going to reach an outcome that he would like. He had taken to spending as much time in the foundry possible, that way Oliver could be sure he would be able to stay clear of Felicity. Maybe he had been pushing himself a little harder than usual in that last week too, so hard in fact it wasn't just criminals of Starling he had been hurting. Between his over-exertion and the obvious distraction, Oliver had recently taken a few hits than usual. A part of him was convinced that he deserved it, that the pain he was taking somehow was making up for what his other-self had done to Felicity. Maybe on some level that was true but, until Oliver actually had the chance to explain his actions to her, he knew that he wouldn't be able to forgive himself. Or, Oliver though, perhaps he didn't deserve that forgiveness.

After the week he had spent trying to stay away from Felicity, Oliver's resolve was beginning to weaken. He knew that if he didn't speak to her soon, even if that was just for her to tell him to go to hell, then he'd break the promise he made to Diggle to give her time. It had become a daily debate for him, whether or not he should go back to her penthouse, and he was leaning more and more towards just damning the consequences and going to see her.

Regardless, Oliver was getting ready to hit the streets for the night, his bow already in hand. As he placed the quiver over his shoulder, his phone began to ring, the shrill noise echoing throughout the foundry. Grabbing the device from his pocket, Oliver answered, not even looking at who was calling.

"Oliver?" He couldn't deny that he froze up a little at the sound of Felicity's voice on the other end. "It's me, I'm ready to talk."

_XXX_

Two days.

It had taken Felicity two days after her talk with Thea to finally pick up the courage to call Oliver. Maybe the younger Queen had been right, 5 years on a deserted island was enough to change anyone, and a part of Felicity felt guilty for holding him to a different standard. After all, there was at least a chance Oliver had a good reason for putting on a hood and shooting the scum of Starling with arrows, right?

She couldn't ignore that fact that he had killed people but according to the SCPD database, which she may or may not have hacked into after her revelation of Oliver's secret, 'The Hood' had stopped dropping bodies after the night of Oliver's welcome home party. It had taken a little longer for Felicity to figure out than she would admit, she was usually much better at seeing connections, but that had been the night where she'd begged 'The Hood' not to kill the man who had abducted her. Oliver had stopped killing because she had asked him to. That realisation had hit Felicity like a ton of bricks, and had been the catalyst for a series of internal debates about vigilantism and Oliver Queen.

'The Hood' had been doing some real good for Starling. Since his arrival street crime had dropped, the rich and corrupt were running scared, and Oliver Queen had returned home. Okay so maybe that one wasn't so much as a 'good for Starling' reason as it was a good for Felicity reason. Yet Oliver had returned home to them, when he'd been doing just fine as 'The Hood' without having to juggle a double life. That was enough to make Felicity think that she'd underestimated how much of the Oliver Queen she fell in love with was left in the man that returned from the island.

So she'd called him, told him that she was ready to hear what he had to say. Of course, as soon as she'd put the phone down Felicity had started to panic. What if Oliver somehow made things worse? What if she couldn't accept whatever reasons he gave to her? Felicity had to fight the urge to pour herself a glass of wine, she was dealing with this the right way. Then came the knock at the door.

All of Felicity's apprehensions and more came crashing into her as she approached the door. She knew it was too late to change her mind now, knowing if she did she may never regain the courage to return to this moment. Felicity hadn't been sure what to expect when she opened the door but for some reason seeing Oliver Queen dressed up in his jeans and a tightly fitted Henley, somehow looking more like himself than usual, hadn't quite been it.

"Hey." He almost seemed…timid, which Felicity certainly hadn't been expecting.

"Do you wanna..?" Felicity simply stepped to one side, allowing Oliver to walk past her.

Cautiously Felicity followed him into her penthouse, watching him as he stopped just before the large island that sat in the middle of the open-plan kitchen. She had to marvel a little at the disturbing real-life metaphor stood before her. Oliver turned to face her, yet the two avoided eye contact.

"How have you been, Felicity?"

She shyly made her way towards him, a little concerned by his formality. Why was he being so casual, as if he was just catching up after a weekend away? "How do you think I've been, Oliver?"

"Felicity, I'm sorry."

"Damn it, Oliver. I don't want apologies. I want a reason."

"I…" Oliver swallowed hard, and for a brief second she saw the regret in his eyes. Then his shell hardened and the defences he put up were back. "The day I went missing, was the day I died…at least, on the inside. Felicity, the island changed me, I'm not the man you all remember. The day Oliver Queen died was the day something new was born. The island forged me into a weapon and I'm going to use it against the criminal and the corrupt, I came back to save Starling."

That wasn't an answer, that was a great way to start his autobiography, but it wasn't an answer. It pulled at her though, made her want to just go to Oliver and try to help make him better, the way she always tried to do. Tonight, Felicity refused to go straight back to her old ways. If Oliver was going to be cold then so was she.

"That's not what I asked Oliver. I know that island was your own personal hell, but what happened to you that made you decide to show up in Starling with a hood, a bow and a plan to wipe out Starling's one percenters?"

"I'm not targeting Starling's one percent." What? Felicity stood and watch as Oliver pulled what looked to be a notebook from his pocket. "I found this on my dad, when I buried him."

Felicity tentatively took the notebook from him and flicked through its pages, recognising the crossed out names as The Hood's victims. Then she realised what he had said about the book being Robert's. "But you said that…"

"I lied." A pained look overtook his features for a brief moment. "We made it to a life raft, my father shot himself when he realised there wouldn't be enough food and water for the both of us."

"Oliver…" Damn what she said about being cold, Oliver didn't deserve that. She took another step towards him, placing a hand over his heart.

She should have expected it but Oliver recoiled at Felicity's touch, taking another step back and away from her.

"That notebook contains a list of every person who my father knew had wronged the city in some way. Before he died he begged me to right his wrongs, and wearing the hood, crossing names off that list…that is the way I honour his memory."

It made sense, hell it made more than just sense. Oliver wasn't just doing this for Starling, he was honouring Robert's memory, trying to justify what happened to him on the island. If anything all that did was make Felicity want do everything she could to help him. The man she loved definitely still existed, somewhere amongst all that pain and anger, if he wasn't there would have been no way Oliver could have come out of that crucible and still function.

"I'm so sorry."

"It isn't your fault this happened to me, Felicity."

"That's not what I meant you idiot." At Oliver's confused look, Felicity knew she needed to elaborate a little. "I'm sorry I didn't see before how hurt you were, I'm sorry that I haven't been trying to help you find your way home, I'm sorry that it took me so long to realise that the Oliver Queen I fell in love with is still there."

"I'm not that man anymore." His return to blunt answers was a little frustrating.

"There's no chance I'm giving up on you, Oliver. I just got you back from the dead."

Oliver took an imposing step towards her, moving a little closer into her personal space than as entirely necessary. "What makes you think I'm still the same person?"

"I don't." Felicity fought back as stubbornly as he did. "I know the island changed you Oliver, I know that things can't just go back to the way they were."

"Then why bother?"

Okay was he trying to piss her off? "Because you're still you."

"Which means what, Felicity?" A bitter, humourless laugh escaped his lips. "The island didn't make me a better person, it made me into something so much worse than you can imagine."

"That's why I want to help you."

"I'm empty inside, Felicity, I'm broken."

"Most men are, I can work with that." She really could. She managed to make playboy Ollie Queen into something better, this would be easy.

"Damn it, Felicity!" Oliver shouted as his hands slammed into the kitchen island, making her jump.

His aggression made hers come out in equal measure. "I don't care if that island carved you up and spat you back out, I'm not walking away from you."

Felicity stopped, waiting for Oliver to argue back. Instead, he moved to pull the shirt he was wearing off, discarding it carelessly to one side. She couldn't hide the way her eyes went wide at the sight of his scars, every night they had slept in her bed he'd always worn a shirt, something Oliver had never done before the island. Felicity had just assumed that he was trying to be polite, but he had been trying to hide the scars from her.

"The island carved me up alright, like a jack-o-lantern." Oliver paused when Felicity reached out to run a finger along the edge of one of his scars. He caught her wrist after a few moments, his grip almost painful. "You have no idea what that did to me, Felicity."

She knew what he was doing, it was pretty obvious. He was trying to convince her that he was bad news, that he'd just end up hurting her. Felicity was convinced that there was no truth there, Oliver might be a different man but somewhere deep down he still loved her. She just knew it. "You don't scare me, Oliver."

With strength that would have frightened her if she hadn't know what he was capable of, Oliver grabbed her hips and lifted her up. He span them both around, placing Felicity on the island.

"I should" Oliver's eyes burned into her as he spoke.

Felicity could feel the pain beginning to rise from his tight grip on her hips and she definitely felt the way her heart had sped up. If Oliver noticed, she would undoubtedly blame it on the fact that he was trying to scare her but a large part of it was the intimacy of the moment, she hadn't been this close to Oliver in 5 years. He really had changed on the island, her Ollie would never have been able to physically hurt her. Felicity quickly pushed the pain to one side and decided to fight back against Oliver.

"You're hurting me to convince me that I'm better off without you, because you think you'll hurt me. That's a little ironic, don't you think?"

Oliver's lack of response should have warranted a slap, at least it would have done if she wasn't trying to lessen the pain he was feeling. He'd had enough violence directed at him over the last 5 years, Felicity needed to get to him another way. Electing to try a different approach, Felicity brought one hand up and cupped Oliver's cheek, before she leaned in and pressed a brief kiss to his lips.

"I still love you, Oliver." His continued ignorance only made Felicity want to push harder. Leaning forward, Felicity wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a tight hug. "I love you, and I always will."

"Stop it, Felicity." Oliver growled, pulling away from her arms. "I don't deserve it."

"You don't deserve love? Spare me the self-loathing bullshit, Oliver. After everything you've been though you absolutely deserve it. And even if you didn't, who ever said that you have to deserve love to get it? I'm here, and I'm going to do anything I have to do to help you."

"Really?" Oliver began, the way his eyes darkened as she spoke reigniting some of that fear she had been feeling.

"Mm-hm" was all Felicity could manage when she felt Oliver's hands move from her hips to the hem of her pencil-skirt, which had ridden up her legs a little, and brushing against the exposed skin of her thighs.

Oliver stopped his movements when he ran his thumb delicately over her inner thigh and a, much louder than Felicity had anticipated, gasp escaped her lips. "I thought you said you'd do anything I needed?"

His question only angered her more. Felicity knew he was just trying to scare her again, but it wasn't going to work. Especially not when the idea he was proposing wasn't actually something she would be opposed to. "I meant that platonically, Oliver."

His response came in the form of his lips against her neck, pressing gently against her pulse. The sensation made her heart race, a content sigh slipping past her lips. Oliver took the opportunity to bring his own lips up, their mouths meeting in a kiss that said far more than their shouting match ever could have. After a few minutes Felicity pushed away, needing to catch her breath. Yet somehow Oliver seemed almost unfazed by the kiss.

"Okay so maybe it was less platonic and more in the romantic I-want-you-right-this-second kinda way." She let out a breathy laugh when Oliver actually smiled at her comment. "Guess this means you're not totally empty inside."

"I guess you're an exception, you were the only thing that kept me going those five years."

Before Felicity could reply, Oliver went back to work on the soft skin of her neck. The sighs she had been trying to hide turned into a full-scale moan when one of his hands moved up from their position on her thighs and lightly cupped her breast.

"Oliver, I think we should probably take this into the bedroom, I'd rather not defile my kitchen like this."

Felicity knew she had slipped up when Oliver quirked an eyebrow at her. "And exactly how far were you expecting this to go?"

It was safe to say that Felicity was suitably stunned by his teasing question. Her temporary distraction was long enough for Oliver to take the front of her button down shirt and quite literally rip it from her body. She gasped at her sudden exposure, but Felicity couldn't deny that the action had a certain appeal. Taking a moment to regain some of her willpower, Felicity glanced at the remains of the pink shirt on the floor.

"Holt shit," the words escaped her lips as a whisper. "This is going to be something else, isn't it?"

Oliver simply grinned at her, that cocky smile reminding her of the ways things used to be between them. It also gave Felicity the chance to actually look at his chest. Not only was he covered in scars and a series of tattoos, which she made a mental note to ask him about later, Oliver was also insanely ripped.

"Now I know you didn't always have a superhuman physique, did you find a weight set on that island or something?"

"I think you're exaggerating a little, Felicity."

"Nope, definitely not exaggerating."

Then his hands were on her hips and the two were pressed up against each other again, with Oliver's lips returning to her pulse. Five years of sexual tension practically exploded between them, and Felicity began to hope her penthouse would actually survive the inevitable marathon. Oliver brought his head up from her pulse and Felicity readied herself for another mind-bending kiss. Instead, Oliver moved up a little and pressed a tentative kiss to her forehead.

"Oliver, what are you…"

Felicity as cut off when Oliver lifted her off the counter and placed her back so she was standing in her kitchen.

"It's late, you should probably head to sleep."

"You're kidding." Felicity knew she was acting like a pouting child, but she didn't care.

"Felicity, we've got time. We can actually figure this out now, figure us out."

Her eyes didn't move from him, not-so-subtlety checking him out as he reached down to grab his shirt. Before Oliver had a chance to put his shirt back on, Felicity spoke up again.

"Stay the night." At his obvious hesitation Felicity continued. "I know you haven't been staying at the mansion and I can't just let you go and sleep under Robert's old factory, in your creepy layer."

Oliver strode over to her, easily picking Felicity up in his arms. As if she weighed nothing, Oliver carried her through to their bedroom. Placing her down gently on the bed, he stood back up. From Felicity's angle, Oliver looked like a particularly delightful wall of muscle and she took the time to appreciate the sight. After only a brief moment Oliver headed towards the walk-in wardrobe, he paused right before he entered the room, glancing back at Felicity.

"I love you too."


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So…a thing happened while I was writing. I got about halfway through the first draft of chapter 10 and then I had a lightbulb moment. So I've pushed the actual chapter 10 back to 11, and instead this is pretty much a context chapter.
> 
> This is basically what happened in the immediate days, weeks and years after Oliver's disappearance, I wanted to establish how powerful the friendship Tommy and Felicity formed while Oliver was gone is, it'll be important later in the story...possibly.
> 
> This chapter can totally be skipped over, but I had the idea and couldn't let it go. So without further ado, enjoy. Well…I say enjoy, this chapter is kinda depressing compared to my usual…

 

_**August 3** _ _**rd** _ _**2007** _

_The Queen's Gambit…lost at sea…Robert and Oliver Queen…no sign of survivors…_

It hadn't stopped. All day, that was all she heard. Felicity thought she had stopped crying sometime around midday, though she wasn't sure. It had been Tommy who'd been the one to call her and she hadn't stopped listening to it on the news channels since. Felicity hadn't even been able to pick up the remote to change the channel.

Oliver was gone.

She'd said goodbye to him a little over 24 hours before, he'd promised he'd see her soon. Felicity didn't want to believe it, she hoped that Oliver, Robert, the whole crew had made it to the lifeboats and they'd be found in just a few more hours. She was being hopeful yes, but those first few hours were critical, there was a pretty good chance that they could still be found, but Felicity never had been one to be overly optimistic. There wasn't so much as a sign of the wreckage, let alone life boats or survivors, which meant the odds weren't as good as she was hoping. When Tommy had first broken the news to her, Felicity had tried to hack into any and every surveillance satellite she could get her hands on though, as Felicity rather painfully discovered, hacking was considerably more difficult when her vision was blurred with tears.

The shock had set in after the crying had stopped, which was why Felicity was frozen in her place on the sofa of the apartment she had been sharing with Oliver, blankly staring at the TV. The knock on the door wrenched Felicity back to the real world. She couldn't face getting up, Felicity was pretty sure it would just be some reporter trying to get a comment.

The knock came again, accompanied by a voice.

"Lis, it's me, open up."

Tommy.

With a sniffle, Felicity forced herself to her feet, walking over to the door. When she finally opened it, Felicity realised that Tommy looked almost as awful as she did, which was seriously saying something. No matter the circumstances, Tommy was always the pinnacle of suave, always unfazed, always maintain his cool nature. Yet today he was stood in her door way, in a creased shirt and suit pants, with eyes almost as red as hers.

Given how quickly he got to her, Tommy must have boarded the Merlyn Global jet the second he finished speaking to her that morning. Felicity had to admit that she was glad to see him, on some level at least, but the sight of Tommy could only remind her of what she had just lost. That wasn't fair to him but it was the truth, Felicity realised that she could hardly look at Tommy without seeing Oliver.

"Lis, I'm so sorry." Tommy stepped through the doorway, holding his arms out to her.

Felicity didn't hesitate before collapsing into his arms, her sobs returning even louder than before. She barely noticed the click as Tommy kicked the door shut behind him, Felicity was far too consumed by her grief. It was obvious that Tommy was trying to be brave for her, he was just holding her, whispering apologies into her ear as his hands started to run smooth circles over her back.

"It was all over the news," Tommy began to speak into her ear. "I went to the mansion to see Moira and Thea but…it was too much. Besides, Oliver would never forgive me if I made you go through this on your own."

That brought a little trace of a smile to Felicity's lips. Whenever they'd been in Starling and Oliver had gotten dragged away on QC business, Oliver had always tasked Tommy with keeping Felicity company in his absence. If by some miracle they did find Oliver, then he would be endlessly thankful to his best friend for taking care of her, which definitely helped bring out that smile Felicity had been fighting.

"You know, I never…never realised how few friends you've got until you're only real one is lost at sea." Tommy's voice was breaking as he spoke and so, after drying her tears with the sleeve of her shirt, Felicity knew it was her turn to be brave for him.

_XXX_

_**August 13** _ _**th** _ _**2007** _

It was the week after Tommy broke the news that he finally convinced Felicity to move into the Queen Mansion. That was the same day they were told that the coastguard was no longer looking for survivors, they were just looking for the bodies. She'd cried, a lot, and Tommy had just sat there and held her. Felicity was amazed at how well Tommy was taking the news, though she supposed that it was just a façade, he was trying to be there for her, and Tommy couldn't do that if he let himself feel…anything.

When Felicity had heard about the change in the investigation, she'd given into Tommy's request for her to move in with the Queen family. Felicity had done her best to fight him, partly because the press would have a field day with that revaluation, but mostly because she didn't think she could cope with being around Oliver's family. Felicity had been given the room next to Oliver's, a move that Rasia had thought to be an act of kindness but had only served to cause her emotions to swell even more.

It was only her first night at the mansion when Felicity found herself sat on his bed, just because she could still smell his aftershave on the bedsheets. The bitter laugh that escaped her lips was one she couldn't repress, Felicity could help but think how pathetic she would have looked to anyone watching her. She should have known better, on some level Felicity had always suspected that Oliver was going to break her heart. Sure, she'd expected that to be when she walked in on him with some other woman, but never like this.

"So we've moved onto being angry now?" Felicity said to no one but herself.

Felicity knew she didn't really believe herself, she might have thought that Oliver would break her heart in the early days but now…now she knew full well how he felt about her, which made everything so much worse. Readjusting the glasses that slipped down her nose, Felicity had taken to wearing glasses instead of her contacts because wearing contacts wasn't easy when she was crying 24/7, when she heard a knock at the door. She stayed motionless, waiting for an indication of who it was behind the door, even though she was reasonably sure she knew who it was already.

"I know you're in there." Yep, it was Tommy.

After a few more moments of silence she heard a thud that was likely his forehead hitting the door, then his voice came again.

"Smoak, if you don't open this door I'm going to break it down…or, you know, bribe one of the cleaning staff to give me a key."

Felicity could help the laugh that escaped her lips at his comment. There was no way he didn't hear it, which meant she was now going to have to talk with Tommy, even if she did want to be alone. Getting to her feet, Felicity walked to the door and unlocked it, immediately returning to Oliver's bed. Obviously having heard the door unlock, Tommy let himself into the room, offering her a sympathetic smile as he took a seat next to her.

In the week since the accident, Tommy and Felicity had spent a lot of time in each other's company. They didn't talk much, and when they did it was mostly Tommy regaling her with stories of all the trouble he and Oliver managed to get into as teenagers. Felicity never told him how many of those stories she had already heard from Oliver himself, but it was nice to hear Tommy's take on them. Though Felicity was often unsure which version of any particular story was most accurate, since both Oliver's and Tommy's retelling seemed pretty outlandish.

"I didn't see him." Tommy's voice suddenly cut over the silence.

Felicity already knew he hadn't been on the dock that morning, she'd been there herself. It was hard for her to hear how much guilt Tommy seemed to have over his best friend's disappearance, especially given that he had absolutely nothing to do with it. Felicity tried to offer Tommy some comfort but he continued talking over her.

"I was out clubbing the night before, I shouldn't have been. I took some girl home I'd never met and I slept in…I just figured I'd see him when he got back, you know?" It broke Felicity's heart all over again when she saw the tears that started to fall from Tommy's eyes, in that whole week she'd never actually seen him cry. "I was angry. Ollie was doing great at collage, lined up to take over at QC, he had you. Then he said he was going on that stupid trip and I got scared…I thought he'd leave me behind. So I went clubbing, I got drunk…and I didn't say goodbye."

Felicity felt the tears prick at her own eyes but fought them back, right now Tommy needed her, and there was no way she'd let him down. Oliver wouldn't forgive her if she did. Placing a hand on his shoulder, Felicity gave him her most convincing smile.

"He wouldn't blame you, Tommy." It was the truth, even if Felicity knew he wouldn't believe it.

"That's not the point, he's dead, 'Lis. And when he died, I was angry at him for being a better man than me."

"Tommy…" Felicity was lost for words, which was rare.

Instead, she did for Tommy what he always did for her, she hugged him. She let him cry until there were no tears left. Then they talked, swapping stories about Oliver; he told her about the time the duo raided Malcom's liquor cabinet when they were 16, and in turn Felicity told him about when Oliver had bought her a $600 dress so she could win a $10 bet. They laughed about those happy stories and cried when things got sad, and when the sun came up in the morning, Felicity found that Tommy had placed her in Oliver's bed after she'd fallen asleep beside him.

_XXX_

_**August 10** _ _**th** _ _**2008** _

"Tommy, I'm not going clubbing with you."

Almost a year since Oliver's…death, which was still hard for Felicity to think let alone say, and Tommy was still trying to convince her to go clubbing with him. The first few times Felicity had relented, feeling that she owed Tommy at least that much for everything he had done to help her through what happened. Now though, it was getting ridiculous. Tommy asked her almost every weekend to join him at whatever latest bar he had picked, and most weekends he just accepted defeat and let her stay home. For some reason, this time was different, Tommy was insisting she join him.

"Come on, Lis."

"No, Tommy. I've got that interview to get an actual job in the IT department at QC tomorrow."

Felicity had managed to secure her internship at Queen Consolidated a few months after…everything. She'd had most of the big tech companies of the East Coast trying to give her the best offer possible, some even giving her the opportunity to get straight in at a surprisingly high level, Felicity had even received a personal dinner invite and job offer from Bruce Wayne himself, but she turned them all down. Walter Steele had been mentoring Felicity somewhat, the British man had taken over as acting-CEO and had offered Felicity a place at QC for her to take as soon as she was ready. It had taken some negotiating, but Felicity had managed to convince Walter to let her start as an intern and actually earn her place in the company. This was why she was currently trying to prep for her interview to move up from her position as an intern.

"You could walk into that interview on Monday, say absolutely nothing and still get the job. Walter wants you in the company and there's nothing you can do to change his mind."

Tommy was right of course. Walter was already giving Felicity 'mentoring' sessions, in which he was teaching her the responsibilities of running QC's IT department. Felicity had to admit that she was a little flattered by the fact that Walter was already preparing her for such a high ranking position, but at the same time Felicity was equally annoyed. She knew that if it wasn't for her relationship with the family she would have had to work her way up through the ranks without any favouritism from her bosses. Despite that, both Tommy and Thea had assured her that it was a pretty common occurrence. Apparently, companies like QC, which were big on being family run, were fond of putting family friends in positions of power where it was possible. Thea had also made a point of telling Felicity that she was lucky she was only being set up to be head of IT, there had allegedly been some talk that Walter wanted Felicity to take a position as VP. That was a terrifying thought, Felicity thought she was barely ready to work in the IT department, let alone be ready to help manage a fortune 500 company.

"I'll break out the blackmail material if I have to, Smoak." Tommy grinned at her from the couch he was sprawled across.

Felicity turned on her heel and gave him a puzzled look.

"What possible blackmail could you have on…" She trailed off as a blush came over her cheeks, at which Tommy's grin grew even wider. "You wouldn't dare."

"I totally would."

The blush faded from her cheeks and Felicity gave Tommy her best death glare. "But that was your fault, I warned you about how bad I am at drinking tequila."

"To which I told you that a Vegas girl like yourself should know how to handle her drink a little better."

"Tommy Merlyn, if that video ever sees the light of day I swear to Google that you'll be on the no-fly list for the rest of your life."

"And yet it would be totally worth it."

It was a losing fight and Felicity knew it. The only thing she didn't know is why Tommy was so adamant that she go clubbing with him, it's not like Tommy needed any help when it came to his venture in personally funding every club in Starling, but for some reason tonight was different. Felicity knew she shouldn't press the issue, Tommy wasn't typically great at sharing his feelings and when he did it was usually after a bottle of whiskey, ' _The Drink of the Broken Hearted_ ', that had become Tommy's mantra anytime he wanted a drink. Felicity could no longer count the number of occasions he'd shown up at the mansion with a vintage bottle of whiskey that probably cost more than her annual salary.

"Tommy," Felicity began, walking over to the couch where he was sat. "What's going on?"

To that, the billionaire sat up, his amused expression suddenly turning sombre. That was when Felicity figured out why he wanted to go clubbing with her so badly, she felt like an idiot for not seeing it sooner.

"I spoke to Moira earlier. They're officially calling off the search."

Felicity knew it was coming, she'd been told herself earlier in the day. It was impressive that the search had carried on this long, and it was thanks to the finances provided by Queen Consolidated that it had been possible, except, even the Queen's didn't have enough money to fund a deep sea search and rescue operation for any longer than they already had. Search and Rescue had turned up nothing and, after a year, anyone who had an opinion on the matter said there was now no chance of finding anything. The belief now was that the wreck was so far below sea level that it would remain undiscovered for years to come. That piece of news had been particularly hard to swallow, it meant that Felicity…that anyone who cared about anyone who had been on the yacht, would never get closure. They just had to accept that there had been a storm and the Gambit had sunk, and that was all there was too it.

"It's stupid, but…" Felicity took a seat beside Tommy on the couch. "If they don't find anything it's like…"

"It's like he still might walk through those doors any day now." Tommy finished for her, Felicity hadn't realised how similar their thinking was. "Sometimes, when I'm out partying and he's not with me, it's like I can forget about everything. I can pretend he's sunbathing of that stupid yacht, drinking tequila with Sara and her girlfriend, not even knowing that we're all back here thinking he's gone."

Tears began to form in her eyes, and Felicity fought them back. She couldn't admit it out loud, but she often found herself having that same fantasy. That somehow, by some miracle, she'd get a phone call from Oliver, and he'd tell her he was on his way home. It was an almost childish fantasy but Felicity couldn't care. She'd have given anything to get him back.

"I just want to have one night where I can really forget about everything." Tommy continued.

"Okay…I'll go find something club worthy in my closet."

Even as she said it Felicity knew she'd regret agreeing to go clubbing with Tommy, she always did.

_XXX_

"I hate you." Felicity called after Tommy, watching him get dragged to the dance floor by yet another nameless woman.

"You couldn't if you tried." Tommy laughed at her, before he completely disappeared from view.

Clubbing with Tommy had gone exactly how Felicity remembered. Given her relationship with Oliver, she had been in the tabloids almost as much as Starling's own dynamic duo, more often than not getting roped into whatever their latest scandal was. Just being in a club filled with Starling's least interesting gossip mongers was bad enough, but being Oliver Queen's girlfriend and clubbing with Tommy Merlyn? Yeah, this was going to end badly for her.

Most of the women they had encountered that night had been giving Felicity death glares, apparently they seemed to see her as an obstacle in their quest to bed the infamous Tommy Merlyn. Pretty much the entire female population of the club had been giving Felicity the ' _what does he see in her?_ ' look, one she'd become all too familiar with during her relationship with Oliver, and one she really shouldn't have let get to her after so long, yet it still did. Though, the Merlyn heir didn't seem to let her presence affect his usual mating ritual. Felicity actually laughed at that thought, she'd spent so long around Tommy in this environment she could probably write a pretty decent nature documentary on the hunting patterns of trust fund playboys.

Whenever she went clubbing with her friends, Felicity tended to use her insane drunken dancing as a method of letting off steam, and it usually worked. She didn't need to take someone home with her, and honestly she  _never_  did. Tommy however, couldn't consider clubbing as letting off steam  _unless_ he took someone home. Felicity had to marvel a little at how different their attitudes to this situation were, then again she really shouldn't have been surprised.

They had been at the club nearly an hour and Felicity had danced a grand total of once, and that was only because Tommy had literally given her no choice in the matter. It had actually been kinda fun for her, if nothing else it had certainly made wearing the exceptionally form fitting, low-cut dress worth it. It hadn't escaped Felicity's notice that she'd drawn the attention of most of the men, and some of the women too, when she'd been up dancing. If this had been any other occasion, more specifically if she had been with Oliver at the club, Felicity would have been a little flattered.

She had enjoyed wearing particularly sultry dresses when in public with Oliver, mostly because of the way he got incredibly territorial, which had some petty delightful results when the two finally got some privacy. Those memories brought a smile to her face, and a deep blush to her cheeks. The way Oliver could get so territorial had been one of the things that annoyed her most when they'd first met, and yet one of the things she most adored in him later down the line.

It was almost 3am when they finally made it back to the Queen Mansion, courtesy of the driver Felicity had made sure to place on call. For once, Tommy seemed to be acting like a gentleman, insisting he'd stay at the mansion to save the driver having to make the extra trip to the Merlyn Estate. That had made Felicity laugh, especially when Tommy had done an impressive job of feigning taking insult to her comment about his behaviour.

Tommy had convinced Felicity to join him in drinking shots at some stage after he dragged her up for a second dance. If she was being totally honest she'd eventually joined Tommy in the V.I.P lounge, when they had both done several rounds of tequila body-shots off a particular busty women, who Felicity was convinced she'd seen in some fashion magazine before. Felicity was also reasonably sure that at some stage, though if it did turn out to be true she'd never admit to it, Tommy had done at least one body-shot off  _Felicity herself_ , the low-cut dress she had chosen for the night had certainly helped out for that particular round of drinking.

The duo stumbled through the doors of the Queen Mansion in a fit of giggles, both trying to 'shush' the other as they did. As they made it up the stairs and to the wing which housed the bedrooms, they were confronted by Thea, a bright grin on her face. Somehow the youngest Queen managed to look her usual picture of teenage elegance and beauty, even if she was just clad in pyjamas. Granted that one set of pyjamas likely cost more than Felicity's entire outfit but that was beside the point. Felicity and Tommy both froze up, trying to at least pretend they were a little more sober than they were. Naturally, they're attempt failed, and they ended up breaking out in another fit of laughter.

"So I take it you enjoyed clubbing?" Thea grinned at them.

"Clubbing, Speedy?" Tommy slurred. "What gives you that impression?"

It was Thea's turn to start laughing. "How about because you just rang me to tell me you were having 'the best night ever' and that you were 'so, so sorry' that I'm too young to go clubbing with you?"

"Me? Nooo…definitely not." Tommy grinned.

Thea and Felicity laughed at Tommy's comment, both knowing that a drunken phone call was textbook Tommy Merlyn. The Queen heir pointed towards Felicity's bedroom door with a smile.

"I made sure you've both got some water and aspirin ready for the morning. Night guys." With a wave, Thea turned and headed back into her room.

_XXX_

_**June 17** _ _**th** _ _**2009** _

Felicity received the alert at 1:30AM.

If she was being totally honest, Felicity felt a little ridiculous for setting up a program to monitor all of Oliver's online accounts, and she'd contemplated shutting it down on more than one occasion. She had first written the program a month after Oliver's disappearance, when the Search and Rescue team said that it was unlikely that they would find any evidence of what had happened to the Gambit. For almost three years that program had sat silent, until that day.

Felicity had woken up straight away, she'd designed a special alert tone for any hits her program turned up, so she was well aware of the seriousness of the situation. 3 hours, and a serious amount of hacking, later Felicity was content to say that there was no mistake. Oliver's email account had been logged onto in Hong Kong, China. That in itself was a pretty astonishing revelation, Felicity couldn't even begin to try and formulate an explanation for why Oliver had ended up in China.

Then she had elected to ' _borrow_ ' the F.B.I's facial recognition software, running it against Oliver's face for every camera she could access in a 5 mile radius of the I.P address of the computer that had been used to access Oliver's emails. When her search turned up nothing, Felicity knew she had to involve Tommy, she couldn't keep a secret like that to herself, and she would need help if she was going to get to Hong Kong.

Grabbing her phone from the bedside table, Felicity hit Tommy's number on her speed-dial.

"'Lissy?" Tommy's voice droned, she had obviously just woke him up. "It's 8AM, what's up?"

"Tommy, get up and get dressed, you need to get to the mansion now. I think I might have found Oliver."

It took Tommy less than an hour to get to the Queen Mansion after that, though when he arrived Felicity was having a little trouble trying to explain what was going on to him.

"So let me get this straight," Tommy began, pacing her room. "You set up a computer thing to tell you if any of Oliver's email accounts were used, and one of them was. But it's in China?"

"Yeah, the I.P address of the router puts the log-on somewhere in downtown Hong Kong, I can't get any more specific than that from here."

"So…so what's our next move?"

Felicity had spent some time planning her next move. If she could get to Hong Kong then she would be able to more reliably track down the site where Oliver's email accounts had been accessed, and then maybe they would get lucky and find him. She knew it was a long shot, and the self-doubt had set in not long after her initial discovery. Maybe it had been some random mistake, maybe a journalist or someone had been trying to access Oliver's email count, or maybe her program was faulty. Felicity couldn't shake those notions, which is why she needed to get to China, so she could get to the truth.

"I need to borrow your dad's jet so I can get to Hong Kong."

Tommy's expression distantly soured at that. "I'm not letting you go to China to chase this, Felicity."

She had been expecting some resistance from Tommy but not outright refusal. The Merlyn heir had become particularly protective of Felicity over the last three years. While sometimes she was grateful of the friendship she had formed with Tommy, it was proving to be a serious issue on occasions like this.

"Why the fuck not?!" Felicity jumped to her feet as she spoke. "He might be alive Tommy, I might be able to bring him home."

"Exactly,  _might_. Felicity I want this to be him just as badly as you do, but if it isn't, or if there's something weird going on...Oliver wouldn't want you to potentially risk your life to try and save his." Tommy took a step forward and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I'll go to Hong Kong, flash some cash around and figure out what's going on. I'll be back before you know it."

_XXX_

_**August 17** _ _**th** _ _**2009** _

"You dyed your hair?"

Felicity felt a grin tug at her lips when she heard Thea's comment. After Tommy had returned from Hong Kong, he had told her that the whole set-up had been a ruse, someone had hacked into Oliver's email account to try and draw out members of the Queen family so they could be ransomed. Tommy himself had gotten kidnapped but was, thankfully, rescued by the HKPD. That event had told Felicity it was time to accept the truth and move on. She'd tried dating again, which didn't work out all that well, she'd even tried picking up a few new hobbies. None of that had worked, and Felicity found herself thinking about Oliver even more than she already had been.

That was when her mother decided to suggest that a change in hair colour might do her good. The idea had seemed laughable at first, to which Donna Smoak had taken serious offence, but Felicity had eventually relented. For whatever reason, it worked. Felicity actually overhauled her entire wardrobe, swapping her contact lenses for glasses and her almost gothic clothing for blouses and pencil skirts. She felt more confident, more like herself again, and, for the first time in three years, like she might actually be able to move on with her life.

Felicity span on her heels to look at Thea, who was currently looking at her with a mix of surprise and appreciation. It had been almost three days since her total overhaul, and somehow Felicity hadn't managed to see the young brunette that whole time. It wasn't a surprise though, Felicity was now an ' _IT and Computer Sciences Consultant_ ' at Queen Consolidated, which consisted of a lot of early mornings and a lot of late nights. As a result, Felicity was awake much early than Thea and returned to the mansion much later than the younger girl.

"Yeah, I felt like it was time to change, you know?" Felicity offered the younger girl a reassuring smile.

"I like it, it's very…Felicity, actually." Thea grinned. "Ollie, would have loved it."

That had been inevitable, Felicity was beginning to find that Thea was bringing up Oliver more and more in the recent weeks. She was comfortable in the knowledge that it wasn't as a result of the Hong Kong incident, Thea hadn't been remotely aware of what had been happening on that front. So the now-blonde had decided that it was most likely because Thea was realising how large a role Oliver had played in her life.

Or maybe it was because of Walter, he and Moira were engaged, and the wedding was now less than 3 months away. That must have been hard for Thea. Felicity knew that the younger girl adored Walter, but it was undoubtedly difficult for her to watch her mother move on in the way she had. The rumours were also circulating that Felicity was about to be receiving a promotion to the sub-head of the IT Department in a few months, allegedly Walter was going to give her the promotion as a sort of reverse wedding gift. That meant Felicity would be spending even less time at the mansion that she already did and, if she was being honest with herself, it also meant that she would be moving out before long. As much as Felicity loved being at the Queen Mansion, it wasn't her home, no matter how much Thea, Walter and Moira tried to convince her otherwise.

"He'd love this dress too." Thea smirked, exaggeratedly looking over Felicity's appearance.

Felicity glanced down to look at the blue dress she was wearing, a similar smile to Thea's coming to her lips. It was tight, form-fitting, with a plunging neckline that showed off a little more than Felicity would usually be comfortable with. She had just been about to leave the mansion to join Laurel on a 'girls night', which meant hitting every club in Starling that they knew Tommy wouldn't be in, and moving venue often enough that he wouldn't track them down. As much as the two of them enjoyed partying with Tommy, sometimes they just needed a  _slightly_ quieter night.

After being dragged out by Tommy almost a year ago, the duo had bumped into Laurel Lance. While the lawyer-to-be had always been good friends with Tommy and Oliver, she had never been particularly close to Felicity. Not to say they were hostile towards each other, they just never seemed to  _click_. That night however, had led to a very drunk bonding session between the two girls, while Tommy had been off on the dance floor. The next morning, Laurel had text Felicity asking to meet for coffee and they quickly became good friends.

Then they had taken to clubbing together, which had been fun, until Tommy started joining them. They both enjoyed clubbing with Tommy a lot, but sometimes they just ended a girls night. A night filled with expensive cocktails and some dancing with men that they'd never met, which was never quite how a night out with Tommy went. Tonight was set to be one of those nights, and Felicity did feel a little guilty for not being able to take the youngest Queen with her.

"Thanks, Thea." Felicity gave the younger girl a bright smile, or as convincing a one as she could manage. "Give it a few more years and you can start joining us."

"I'll hold you to that, 'Lissy!" Thea called after her as felicity made her way out of the mansion.

_XXX_

_**November 19** _ _**th** _ _**2011** _

"Congratulations, Felicity, you've earned it." Walter embraced the blonde as he spoke.

"Thanks, Walter." Felicity smiled as she separated herself from the Englishman.

Tommy had thrown her a party. Of course he did, because why wouldn't he? She'd just revived her promotion to the Head of IT, and the second the news had reached his ears Tommy had recruited both Laurel and Thea, the trio planning this not-so-surprise party for her. Felicity was yet to move out of the Queen Mansion, even thought she had her new penthouse, courtesy of the Queen Matriarch, lined up and as a result she'd caught wind of the party pretty quickly.

That didn't mean that Felicity wasn't appreciative of the effort her friends had gone to, she was over-the-moon with how much time had clearly gone into the planning of the event. Somehow it didn't feel right to be celebrating the promotion, it hadn't exactly been a shock to any of them. The whole Queen-Steele family, and friends, had known from her first day at the company that this was exactly where her career was headed. Not to say she wasn't grateful for the job, but it felt a little like a hollow victory. Well there was that, and Felicity just didn't feel…right, to be celebrating this achievement without Oliver.

"He'd be proud of you, 'Lis." Tommy smiled at her, handing Felicity a flute of champagne as he did.

Taking the glass, the blonde felt a blush rise on her cheeks. "Tell me I didn't say any of that out loud."

"You didn't," Tommy laughed. "But I could tell, I can always tell when you're thinking about him."

"Really? I have a tell do I?" Felicity teased, trying to steer Tommy away from the serious notes he was touching on.

"You do," the billionaires mood suddenly became a lot more sober. "You keep glancing to your right, as if you're expecting him to be stood next to you."

"Tommy…"

Downing the rest of his champagne, Tommy met Felicity's eyes. "This is going to sound beyond hypocritical but…you need to find a way to let go, Felicity. It's been over four years, I don't want to admit it but he isn't coming back."

He was right, of course. Felicity had tried, so many times, to move one. Hardly any of the dates she went on ever panned out, and the few that made it beyond dinner never ended anywhere good. Felicity knew that she was holding all of the potential boyfriends up to Oliver, and somehow none of them ever compared. She'd been told by Laurel on numerous occasions that she needed to get laid even if she didn't meet up with the guy again. Never having been a fan of one-night-stands, the idea hadn't been of great consideration to Felicity, though recently it was becoming an appealing way, she needed to find a way to move on, before she gave up trying altogether.

Though there would always be a part of Felicity that was still hoping the Oliver would return to her.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this happened, I'm not too sure how I feel about this chapter but I just couldn't get the idea out of my head and started suffering some serious writers block until it was done. I'm only posting it because...well why not?
> 
> There's a good chance I'll end up coming back to tweak this chapter later down the line depending on what I establish plot wise.


	11. Chapter 11

Felicity knew.

She knew everything. He had told her his secret and she had accepted him. Oliver had to admit that he was a little in awe of how things had turned out. When he'd arrived at her penthouse the previous night he really hadn't known what had come over him. All of Oliver's worst fears came to the forefront of his mind and he had actually tried to convince Felicity that she should have abandoned him. Of course, it hadn't worked, in retrospect Oliver realised that he'd made a stupid mistake, he should have known that Felicity wouldn't respond to his intimidation tactics. For that he was incredibly glad.

Then they had gone to bed together. Somehow Oliver had managed to keep his hands off her all night, and she him, and after what had transpired in the kitchen, just a few minutes before they'd entered the bedroom, that had been a pretty astonishing feat. Though, when Oliver had woken up, he found Felicity pressed against his side, one of her arms wrapped around his chest. He had taken a few moments to appreciate that sight, the image of the blonde curled up against him was one that he would certainly remember for a long time to come. Unconsciously, Oliver had wrapped one of his arms around her also, pulling her closer into him.

It was almost another hour before Felicity stirred, but Oliver had spent that entire time silently appreciating her. Her eyes leisurely fluttered open, gradually adjusting to the bright sunlight streaming through the window. A soft groan escaped her lips as Felicity looked up to see his eyes fixed on her, and in that moment Oliver was undoubtedly reaffirmed in his belief that she was the most gorgeous woman he had ever had the pleasure to feast his eyes on.

"You know, anyone else would be totally creeped out by you watching them sleep." She teased, a smile creeping over her lips.

Oliver let out a gentle laugh, noting that Felicity seemed significantly more functional than she usually did this time of the morning. When they had been sharing a flat before the island, Oliver could recall with perfect clarity how… _temperamental_ …Felicity could be without her morning coffee, and Oliver was regularly on the receiving end of her caffeine-depravation fuelled anger. This morning however, the blonde seemed to be in a far more agreeable mood, for which Oliver was particularly grateful.

"You might be right," Oliver leant down and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "But there isn't anyone else I'd rather be admiring for a whole morning."

The bright smile she gave him at that comment pulled endlessly at Oliver's resolve, but he somehow managed to fight the urge to actually kiss her dazzling lips. Instead, he opted to return the expression, though Oliver was almost unable to pull his eyes away from her smile. It felt all too familiar for him, they had gone almost completely back to their old routine, and yet now Oliver could sense an even greater sense of trust between them than they had before the island, they were connected in a way they hadn't been before. Perhaps, Oliver considered, it was simply down to maturity, they were both five years older and wiser. All the same he was sure that it was more likely as a result of the fact that he was quite literally trusting Felicity with his life, something which seemed to forge an even stronger link between the couple.

"I can't believe it's been so long since I've woken up next to you." Felicity beamed at him. "I mean…I know we've been sleeping in the same bed for like two months, and most of those mornings I woke up next to you, but this is like a totally different thing…"

Oliver's smile only broadened as Felicity started rambling about the connotations of her comment on their sleeping habits. After letting her continue for a few moments, with a small, but amused, laugh Oliver interrupted her.

"Felicity I get it. This is nice, we'll have to do it more often."

"Flirt." Felicity playfully slapped his arm as she rolled over, and pushed herself up out of the bed. "I need to grab a shower, mind making some coffee?"

There it was. Oliver followed her lead and climbed out of the bed, heading over to the door where she was stood. He paused briefly to take in her appearance, marvelling a little at the way Felicity looked.

"What, no offer to come join you?" Oliver grinned as he approached.

"Play your cards right and I'll consider it." Felicity winked at him as she disappeared into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

With a disbelieving smile, Oliver headed into the penthouse's open plan kitchen. Felicity had been playful before the island, the two of them had flirted endlessly before and after they became a couple, much to the chagrin of anyone around them. Though when the two had privacy and she'd made any insinuations like she just had, Felicity had always followed them up with a rambling babble. It was one of her most endearing habits, but Oliver had to admit that he liked the new, confident Felicity just as much.

So, he still remembered how to make coffee. Oliver hadn't even realised that he'd been unconsciously going through the motions as he was thinking about Felicity, and already had the cafetière of coffee sat brewing on the kitchen's island. Marvelling at the autonomous nature of his routine, Oliver took a seat on one of the stools around the island, grabbing the tablet Felicity had left there to check the latest news.

The Reston trial. That was the first item that flashed up when Oliver loaded the Starling City Sentinel webpage. Even knowing he shouldn't, Oliver opened the article, submitting himself to the torture of having to read about the family. All three surviving members were being tried for upwards of 40 counts of grand larceny, but Teddy Reston (or Jack as his mask had suggested) had the attempted murder of Stan Washington added to his charge sheet. Oliver knew that the gang were exactly where they deserved to be, yet he couldn't help the guilt that tugged at him anyway.

He hadn't even heard the shower turn off, that's how distracted he'd been. So Felicity's sudden announcement of her arrival in tot the room had actually startled him, even though he'd never admit it. Oliver had to give her credit, it was probably the first time in almost 5 years someone had managed to sneak up on him.

"Ooh, coffee." Felicity all but glided to the stool beside Oliver, swiftly pouring the both of them a full cup each.

Oliver grabbed the cup and took a tentative sip, watching as Felicity loaded her coffee with an unhealthy amount of sugar. It was becoming all too easy for him to forget how much things had changed, between the way Felicity had looked at him this morning and the familiarity of their routine, the couple could have been back in collage. The couple enjoyed a comfortable silence as they drank their coffee, and Oliver noted that this was another change in Felicity's attitudes. The blonde had never been good at dealing with silence, comfortable or otherwise, she had always felt the need to keep some element of noise in her environment.

In fact Oliver could distinctly remember the multiple occasions when they'd been in collage and Felicity had insisted that she need to work somewhere with noise, leading to the couple becoming regulars at one of the campus' coffee shops. Failing being able to be present at a coffee shop, the then-brunette had worn headphones, and that had become one of the many reasons Oliver had loved being with her at the Queen Mansion. There had been something about the way Felicity seemed to enter her own world when she listened to music that had seemed strangely adorable to Oliver.

_**October 21** _ _**st** _ _**2006** _

_It was the third time that month Oliver had been called back to Starling to attend one of the Queen family galas. Oliver was convinced that his father was currently on some sort of power trip, either that or he was just testing Oliver's resolve to see how many of the ridiculous events he would put up with before snapping. If it hadn't been for Felicity, Oliver was convinced he would have at least tried to turn down this latest offer, epically given that he now actually had exams to revise for and papers to write._

_He was actually working in collage, more than that Oliver was actually achieving good grades and that was yet another thing he attributed to Felicity's influence. Sure, he'd been doing his work before they'd met but he'd struggled and often resigned to using his family name to get others to help him. Oliver knew just how much of a difference there was between those people and Felicity, they helped him because they wanted to experience the luxury that came with having a Queen in their debt, Felicity wanted to help him because she genuinely believed in him._

_The gala itself was being held at QC, but wasn't starting until later that evening. Currently the couple were trapped in Oliver's bedroom, after Felicity had insisted that they spend the day finishing up assignments, as opposed to going to into Starling for the day as Oliver had suggested. He had wanted to head into the city to meet Tommy and Laurel, who had both been brought back to Starling for the gala. Tommy had told Oliver that Malcom had demanded his presence and Tommy had decided to invite Laurel as his plus one. Which of course meant that Felicity had elected to tease Tommy endlessly about the 'date' he was going on with Laurel. Despite Tommy, Laurel, and Oliver himself, insisting that the two were just attending the event as friends, felicity hadn't let up. She had always seen something between Tommy and Laurel, ever since Oliver had first introduced her to them, and Felicity had been a little unrelenting in her attempt at matchmaking._

_The couple had taken to staying in Oliver's room to avoid both the watchful eye of his parents and the unending ball of energy that was his sister. The youngest Queen had turned 11 and was yet to reach her rebellious teenager stage, still wanting to spend every possible minute with her 'cool older brother'. While Oliver truly adored his sister, he did actually feel the need to at least attempt to finish up some work. However, he was particularly distracted by the sight of the brunette laying on his bed._

_Felicity was laid out, flat on her stomach, on his bed, a book between her hands, and headphones in her ears. Oliver had no idea what she was reading, something to do with building computers that he couldn't even begin to understand. He had to marvel at how natural it seemed for him to see her there, they had been officially dating a little over half a year, and yet Oliver was already accustomed to seeing Felicity sprawled out in his bed. The most distracting feature of her current appearance, was the way Felicity was bobbing her head a little to her music, and she was humming along to what Oliver thought was a song by that band from Vegas, whom Felicity had recently taken a liking to._

" _You're staring again, Queen." Felicity smiled, not lifting her eyes from her book._

_Oliver was endlessly amazed by her ability to multitask so flawlessly, he hadn't even seen her look away from the book in the last 10 minutes and yet she had caught him staring._

" _I might be." Oliver threw her a grin, and by the way her lips curled she must have seen it._

" _Well you_ should be  _working."_

_With the grin on his face spreading, Oliver placed the textbook he was meant to be reading back down on his desk and got to his feet, heading over to the edge of his bed._

" _Well I," Oliver began, moving so he was kneeling on the bed beside Felicity, as the brunette finally deciding to look up at him. "Have a much better idea of how we should spend our time."_

" _Oliver," Felicity tried to speak but Oliver cut her off, quickly leaning down to press a kiss against her lips._

_The touch was light, just enough to silence Felicity but nowhere near sufficient to quell the desire that was pulling him towards her. Oliver only held the kiss for a brief moment before pulling back, watching the way Felicity had risen to her knees in an attempt to match his height. Before she could react, Oliver took the book from Felicity's hands and discarded it across the room._

" _If you're parents come up here, or worse Thea, we're totally screwed."_

_She was right of course, Felicity always was, and it manged to be one of her most endearing, yet equally irritating, qualities. Oliver however, had no such reservations. Queen Mansion was large enough for the chance of any of Oliver's family passing by the room to be between slim and none. At that time of the day his father would be at QC, his mother would be busing herself with some form of philanthropy, and Thea would be, playfully, tormenting the household staff. That left Oliver and Felicity completely undisturbed, even if the latter was unaware of that fact. With a smug grin, Oliver leant in a little further, his lips less than an inch away from the brunette's._

" _Oh come on, 'Lissy, that's half the fun." Oliver closed the rest of the distance and returned his lips to hers._

_**Present Day** _

"Is that the Reston trial?" Felicity's voice cut through the silence, dragging Oliver from his reminiscence.

Oliver glanced down to see that Felicity's tablet was still sat on the island in front of him. A brief wave of guilt consumed Oliver's thoughts, realising that he hadn't given Felicity the full truth of her involvement in the case. Even after last night had gone over much better than Oliver had expected, he still didn't know if he could really implicate Felicity in the other part of his life. Her help had already been invaluable to him, and Oliver didn't want to lose it, yet he didn't want to put Felicity in any more danger either. If she could be kept safely away from his mission, Oliver thought, there could be a chance for them to make whatever was going on between hem work.

"Yeah, I…" Oliver trailed off, a little lost for words.

"I read about what happened at the bank, the security guard said that Derek Reston jumped in front of a bullet to save his son." The sympathetic look that crossed over her face told Oliver that she already knew about his presence at the bank, even if it had been kept out of the press. "It wasn't your fault. There wasn't anything you could have done."

"That's exactly what Digg said." Oliver couldn't help but find it a little amusing that Felicity already seemed to know his alter ego as well as Diggle did.

"That's because it's the truth, Oliver." Felicity placed her hand over his as she spoke. "You probably saved that guard's life."

"Yeah…thanks, Felicity."

Oliver wasn't convinced by her words. Part of him had started to wonder what would have happened if he'd just left the gang alone, from what the Reston's had discussed the night job was going to have been their last hit; the guard had been chloroformed and there was no sign of the SCPD. Oliver had spent far too long debating what the outcome would have been if he had simply let the Reston's get away. Maybe Derek would have survived, maybe his family wouldn't be about to serve life sentences, and yet there was no way of knowing.

After a few minutes of silence between the two, Felicity turned to meet his eyes again.

"I want to help."

_XXX_

The offer to join Oliver in his crusade had gone about as well as Felicity had expected, if a little better all things considered. She had extended the offer and he'd refused, Felicity, quite naturally, fought back. Oliver told her there was no way he'd risk her life, Felicity told him he was an idiot. Then Oliver had stormed out of the penthouse.

"Yeah, that was always going to end badly, wasn't it?" Felicity said to no one but herself.

She'd hadn't intended on going into Queen Consolidated that day, but after her argument with Oliver, Felicity realised that distracting herself with work might be the better alternative to hacking all of Oliver's bank accounts just to prove a point, which she had been seriously considering at one stage. Unfortunately, Felicity had to admit to being a little more short tempered at work than she usually was, she often prided herself on how patient she could be with some of the idiots that the job made her deal with. Felicity had even snapped at a few of the people who worked for her in the IT department, which she  _never_ did.

There was no way she could understand why he was being so stubborn, well she could, because Felicity was, more often than not, equally as stubborn. What she didn't understand was why Oliver wouldn't let her join him and Diggle in the whole vigilante thing. Sure Felicity wasn't the biggest fan of the entire illegal crime fighting scheme, though she did have to relent to there being a certain appeal around it, she just wanted to make sure she was as close as she could be to Oliver while he was out there fighting. He had employed her help in his 'mission' a few times already, so Felicity was at a loss for why he wouldn't formally let her join.

Oliver's excuse had been that he didn't want to put her in any extra danger, and Felicity just couldn't come to terms with that. She wouldn't be at any more risk if she officially joined his crusade, in fact she would be safer if she was closer to Oliver. Then again, Felicity considered, she knew where his lair was. Felicity thought she could just show up at the hidden room beneath the factory and decide to help out, it's not like Oliver would be able to stop her without physically removing her from the building, and even that wouldn't prevent her from trying again.

"He's a stubborn jerk, Smoak, just accept it and move on." She told herself out aloud.

"I assume we're talking about, Oliver?" Felicity pulled her eyes away from her computer to see John Diggle stood in the door to her office, a smirk thrown across his lips.

"How long were you stood there?" Felicity eyed the bodyguard with suspicion.

"Long enough." Diggle moved into the room and took a seat opposite her. "You often think out loud or just when Oliver's pissed you off?"

The way the blood rushed to her cheeks at his comments was annoyingly obvious to Felicity, she hadn't realised that  _internal_ rant had been spoken out loud. Damn her lack of a filter, it was seriously a pain at times. Nevertheless, Diggle had heard her rant and she'd have to live with the consequences. Hopefully, she'd be able to backtrack a little for the sake of damage control, though given her track record Felicity didn't have a lot of faith in that idea.

"Personally, I'm on your side." Diggle spoke before she had a chance to. "Oliver needs you, if he'll admit it or not. He's scared that if you get too close, you'll see the  _real him_  and run the other in the other direction."

"John," Felicity was a little astonished by his revelation. "I…I wouldn't…"

"Well I know that, and somewhere in that thick skull of his Oliver does too, you just need to find a way to get through to him."

Diggle's words had certainly left Felicity with something to think about, so much so that she hadn't even noticed when the ex-soldier had stood up and walked out of her office. There wasn't a better way to put it, Diggle was right, some part of Oliver knew that he was being an idiot and all Felicity had to do was figure out how to bring that part out.

"Come on, Smoak. If you could talk playboy Oliver Queen into being a one-girl kinda guy you can think of a way to fix this."

Then it clicked. Oliver had asked her, on the night of his welcome home party, to trace the manufacturing point for the, more-than-dubious, bag of drugs he'd given her. At the time, Felicity had been so weirded out but the request, and disturbed at the knowledge that the drugs in question had come from Thea, that she'd hidden the said evidence in a box in a dark corner of her penthouse. Now though, it made complete sense. Oliver's alter ego must have been on the hunt for the guys who were making the stuff he'd given to her. Felicity couldn't have been more in support of that idea now she knew why Oliver wanted that particular favour from her, if they could do anything to help Thea steer clear of that path then she would consider herself a pretty great big sister.

As much as it pained her to admit it, Felicity hadn't had the heart to confront Thea after Oliver's welcome home party. Between the outright shock of learning Thea was still using and getting kidnapped, the idea of an intervention hadn't seemed a good idea. Now however, Felicity was beginning to wonder if she should have done something. She had failed Thea, of that Felicity was certain, she had honestly though that the youngest Queen had decided to go clean after their  _discussion_  over two years ago. Yet now Felicity wanted nothing more than to be able to try and talk the brunette into giving up whatever flavour of narcotic she had chosen.

Not that Felicity thought it would have made much difference. Thea was 15 the first time Felicity caught her using, and to her knowledge the brunette had been clean ever since, though now it was painfully obvious to her that she had been lied to ever since. That made it clear to Felicity that she wouldn't be the one to help Thea get clan, but maybe she could convince Oliver to talk to his sister himself.

That was how she would convince Oliver to trust her with the other part of his life. If she did this, then that would show him she wasn't afraid of what he did, that she really did want to be part of his other life. If she was honest, Felicity was genuinely no longer fearful of that other part of Oliver, it made sense to her, in fact part of her admired what he did. It certainly wouldn't hurt that Felicity would be safe to say Thea would no longer have a reliable dealer, though she supposed that it wouldn't be a challenge for the youngest Queen to find a new one given the money available to her.

Although when Felicity actually considered what she would need to do to run down a manufacturing point, her plan stalled a little. So maybe she'd have to go and ' _borrow_ ' a few pieces of equipment from QC's Applied Sciences division, but she could make it work. Well, Felicity certainly hoped she could. If not for her or Oliver's sake, then Thea's.

_XXX_

He'd started breaking the training dummies again, that was when Oliver realised that he was reacting a little worse to Felicity's offer of help than he had initially thought. That didn't change Oliver's view though, he knew that she couldn't become any more involved in his life than she already was. She had accepted him and Oliver knew he would be eternally in awe of that fact, but he couldn't let her become and official piece of his mission, there was no way he could risk her life like that. Felicity was at enough risk already, just by being with him, let alone if she was part of the group that was targeting Starling's most dangerous criminals.

Then there had been Diggle's comment. The ex-soldier was always full of irritating insights into Oliver's psyche, and his latest one had been no exception. Nonetheless Oliver hadn't stopped thinking about this one. All Oliver could play over in his head as he trained were Diggle's words, that his reservations weren't really about her safety but he was afraid of letting her get too close. In fact the older man had been pretty convinced of Oliver's relationship issues; that as much as he might be happy to be with Felicity, she still didn't really know who Oliver Queen was, and he was afraid she'd run if she did.

There was no way Oliver could say for certain that Diggle was in any way wrong in his psychoanalysis, though it was something Oliver didn't think he could admit to. Felicity meant far too much to him for Oliver to ever risk that being the truth, he had almost lost her once already over his dark passenger and he wasn't going to do it again. She knew about the life he lead and wasn't afraid of him, but Felicity still didn't know who he was, not really.

Oliver ignored the sound of the foundry door clicking open, assuming that it would be Diggle returning from Big Belly Burger, the fast-food joint had become a regular part of Oliver and Diggle's regime, and working off the greasy food had become and even more regular item. Continuing his workout, Oliver tried to pay no attention to his partner's arrival, knowing that Diggle would undoubtedly sound his latest appreciation of Oliver's current mental state as his introduction. As a result, Oliver was more than a little shocked to hear high heels clacking against the foundry floor a few moments later.

It briefly crossed Oliver's mind that he could keep training, in the hopes that the blonde would think he actually hadn't heard her arrival, though he suspected that Felicity now knew him well enough to see through that particular evasion. Accepting that he had no choice but to face her, Oliver slowed down his strikes against the training dummy, eventually coming to a total stop. Grabbing a towel from the rack beside him, Oliver turned to look at the blonde.

"Hi, Oliver." Felicity held a sympathetic smile on her lips as she spoke, so she wasn't all too mad about his actions that morning.

"Hey." Was all Oliver could seem to manage.

Before he could think of anything else to say to her, Felicity held her hand out to him, what looked like a flash-drive between her fingers. Tentatively, Oliver reached out and took the drive, rolling the device between his own fingers as he eyed it. Knowing Felicity the drive would have some less-than-legally acquired data on it. The blonde was so meticulous that even five years later she was still using the same sleek black flash-drives in her hacking endeavours.

"That's the manufacturing point for the  _item_ you gave me at your welcome home party." Felicity began. "So maybe this means you can go shut down a bunch of drug pushers tonight?"

She really hadn't changed in the years he had been gone, that was the first thought that came to Oliver's mind, Felicity was still incapable of actually listening to him when he told her no. Though this was a little lower down his list in terms of annoyances, if Felicity was right, and she always was, this would help him stop the people that his sister had taken to buying drugs from in his absence. Yet, Felicity was still insisting on trying to be a part of his other life, even after his warnings against it. The second thing he noted, was the way Felicity addressed him, she didn't refer to 'The Hood' when she spoke. The blonde had wholly accepted that Oliver and his dark passenger were one and the same, even if, on occasion, he didn't want to admit that himself.

Then Diggle's comment returned to his thoughts. Oliver wouldn't put it past the ex-soldier to have gone and spoken to Felicity himself, making Diggle yet another person who elected to ignore his warnings. That would certainly explain Felicity actions though, she was offering him an olive branch in the form of a target for his cross-hairs, Felicity was trying to show him that she wasn't afraid of his life, that she actually wanted to be a part of it despite everything.

"So, are we absolutely sure that it was Thea's stash? I mean it could have just been…"

"It was definitely hers." Oliver cut over her. "I don't want to believe it either, Felicity, but she's using, and my guess is this wasn't some one-time thing."

The way Felicity's face dropped at his answer was absolute proof that she had been just as oblivious to his sister's actions as he had been, Oliver realised that, maybe, the revelation was even more disappointing for Felicity than it had been for him. Oliver knew that Felicity had spent the last five years as Thea's best friend, he hesitated to say  _sister_ , and she was now learning that the young brunette had a completely different side to her life, a side she was keeping hidden from her family. Especially when Thea had, apparently, been lying to Felicity outright about her drug habit.

That particular thought made Oliver cringe a little, it was impossible for him to ignore his own hypocrisy. He was just as guilty as Thea when it came to keeping secrets from the ones closest to him, though, Oliver rationalised, his secret was less destructive to those people than Thea's.

The conversation had also, regrettably, made Oliver acutely aware of something Felicity had said at his party, that she had already confronted Thea about her drug use. Which only made him consider why the blonde hadn't confronted his sister this time around, he had sensed no hostility between the two so Felicity must have kept quiet about it. Nevertheless, Oliver was more than aware that it wouldn't be long before he had to confront Thea about her habits himself.

Instead of offering him a response, Felicity took a few paces across to Oliver's computer set-up, taking one of the communication devices he and Diggle used from the desk. Oliver didn't miss the look of mock disappointment that crossed Felicity's features when she observed the network he had built. The blonde had always been judgmental of Oliver's computer skills, and he would be nothing but honest to admit that none of her 'tech talks' from their collage days had stayed with him. It was hardly a surprise to him though, computer skills hadn't exactly ranked high in the list of things he'd needed to survive the island.

"You know seeing a system this poorly set up hurts me, in my soul." A smile crossed her lips as she spoke.

"Felicity." Oliver scolded, keeping his voice low.

She was pushing him for another way in, another chance to help. Whether Felicity could accept him for who he truly was or not, Oliver still wasn't sure he could risk her life by involving her. Though this time, it seemed, Oliver wouldn't be given that chance, as soon as he finished speaking Felicity span on her heel to face him.

"No, Oliver. You don't get to make this decision for me. I want to help," Felicity began, taking a few steps towards him as she spoke, when the blonde had closed the distance between them, she reached up, placing a hand on Oliver's chest. "Because I believe in you, Oliver, in what you're doing, and because I've only just got you back and I  _have_ to do everything in my power not to lose you again."

Oliver was reasonably sure that he wasn't far away from breaking a tooth considering how hard he was currently clenching his teeth. It shouldn't have been a surprise that Felicity was all but taking this decision out of his hands, Oliver knew from experience that once Felicity Smoak put her mind to something then she didn't give in until she'd achieved that goal. Nine times out of ten that was a pretty amazing quality, and yet Oliver currently found himself both appalled and in awe of her stubbornness. Maybe Diggle had been right, and Felicity was now showing him that she really did trust him, more than that she believed in him. So perhaps, Oliver considered, he could bring Felicity into his life, and not be afraid of losing her if he did.

"Okay." That was the only word Oliver could seem to find.

"Oliver, I swear th…" Felicity seemed to hold onto her anger when she began, before freezing in her speech. "Did you just agree with me?"

"And I will never do so out loud again." Oliver smiled at her, trying to defuse some of the tension.

His humour seemed to work, a laugh escaping from Felicity's lips as the anger behind her eyes faded away completely. When her chuckle subsided, Felicity looked back up and met Oliver's eyes, for the first time since her arrival without an angered look but with a smile. Oliver couldn't help but to return it, the blonde always had seemed to have a contagious effect on him whenever she smiled, it was just another of the things about her Oliver found remarkable.

"So being as its still daylight and you can't do any…" Felicity trailed off and made a weak impression of shooting an arrow from a bow, accompanied by a 'whoosh' noise. " _Arrowing_ … you wanna go get a coffee and help me figure out how much it'll cost to upgrade your system?"

_Remarkable_.

Felicity would never cease to amaze him, especially in moments like these. Thirty seconds prior she had been ready to murder him, or at the very least slap him, and now Felicity was asking Oliver on a date. She was undoubtedly a remarkable woman.

"Sure." Oliver couldn't help how wide his smile was when he answered.

Oliver took a few steps forward, picking up the leather jacket which he been left over one of the desk chairs and shrugged it on. Closing the rest of the distance between himself and Felicity, Oliver placed a hand on her upper arm, letting Felicity know to walk with him. As they moved to the steps out of the foundry, Oliver turned to look at her.

"The upgrade can cost whatever it needs to, Felicity. I think my trust-fund can take the hit."

The honest laugh that escaped her lips at his remark echoed throughout the foundry. "Do not challenge me like that, Queen. I could totally bankrupt you with this if I wanted to."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I might throw a chapter (or at least a flashback) in to expand on Felicity and Laurel's relationship at some stage, because I don't think I've done justice in showing the friendship they have in this universe, at least they do in my head anyway. Let me know if that's something you guys would be interested in me adding.
> 
> As an added thing, because I've established that Oliver and Laurel have never had anything more than a friendship in this universe, she never would have seen his scars in 1x05 (especially given that the entire episode never happened in this story). I mention this because it might be a plot point later on in the narrative, I'm as yet undecided.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where I'm deciding to take this story more on the AU track, we'll still be touching on important canon issues (namely the Helena debacle, and anything to do with Malcom and the Undertaking) but they won't be the most prevalent issues, you'll see what I mean a little further into this chapter. I'll be referencing the events that happen in the canon but I won't be writing about them in as much detail as in the last few chapters. Mostly, the canon is going to serve as a backdrop I'll use to reinforce the stuff I'm doing with Oliver and Felicity's relationship.
> 
> Well that's the plan at least…and we all know how great I am at sticking to the plans I make.
> 
> As a small side note, I've had a few people ask me about some of the events of chapter 10, more specifically when Felicity and Tommy at Queen mansion after they go clubbing. They DID NOT sleep together. The chapter did actually go that way in the original draft, but when it came down to it I just couldn't see either of them being able to betray Oliver like that.

 

"I hate you."

Felicity was on her back, again, with a shirtless Oliver Queen and his oh-so smug smile towering above her, and it was, regrettably, nowhere near as fun as it sounded. Ever since her official induction to the team, the archer had insisted that Felicity allow him to teach her self-defence. For some ridiculous reason Felicity had agreed to his demand, and was already regretting that decision.

"No, you don't." Oliver countered, holding out a hand for her.

Begrudgingly, Felicity took his hand an allowed Oliver to pull her to her feet. It had been clear from the very first training session they'd had that Felicity was far from talented when it came to self-defence, which had only made Oliver more determined to teach her. So far, all his lessons had achieved was teaching Felicity that she was a lot more susceptible to bruises than she had originally thought. Oliver, however, was unrelenting in his training of her, in fact he seemed to be enjoying watching Felicity suffer.

"I'm not." Oliver's voice sounded again, his smirk even wider.

"I said that out loud, didn't I?" Felicity could already feel the blush that was rising in her cheeks.

It had been alarmingly obvious to Felicity that her lack of a filter had seemed to get even worse over the last week, somehow even more of her internal babbles were now making it past her lips. For the sake of not blaming herself, Felicity had put that particular issue down to spending an alarming amount of time in the foundry, during which time Oliver tended to work-out shirtless. Not that Felicity was completely appalled by that specific trade-off, the extra embarrassment was worth getting to watch him train. It was safe for Felicity to say that she didn't know many women who wouldn't enjoy the opportunity to watch a shirtless Oliver Queen exercise, and she was only human, right?

As it turned out, Oliver didn't actually answer her question, instead throwing her one of his annoyingly attractive smiles, which had more-or-less confirmed that she had been babbling aloud again. It certainly hadn't escaped her notice that Oliver had taken to smiling a lot more in the past week, so much so that even Diggle had commented on the archers change in mood. Part of her was simply overjoyed at the idea of Oliver finding some of his way back to his old self, though Felicity couldn't deny that she was also particularly proud of being the one who had helped to bring about that particular change.

"Let's go again." Oliver spoke, dragging Felicity from her thoughts.

"We've been at this for hours and I'm about ready to pass out, how long can you keep it up for?"

Felicity hadn't even realised what she had said until she saw Oliver arching an eyebrow, and the faint snigger that came from Diggle. When it did click, Felicity couldn't help the way her eyes went wide, the blush rising in her cheeks again.

"I meant the training, because it's like you've got super-human stamina or something."  _Shit._ Felicity knew she was making the situation worse, but couldn't help but continue. "To fight with, I mean. Not that I'd have any idea what your stamina is like in  _that_ department…anymore, that is."

The blush in her cheeks was even brighter after that, Felicity didn't even make to look in a mirror to be able to tell that one, though Oliver's grin had turned into a bright laugh, and she could practically feel the vibrations of his low baritone. So maybe Felicity had, on some seriously subconscious level, raised her last comment intentionally. She and Oliver had yet to resolve the tension which had been left over from the  _incident_  in her kitchen a few weeks prior, which was really beginning to become a problem. Despite that, Felicity had no idea if Oliver was likeminded with regard to that issue, even given how close they had become the archer still wasn't great at sharing emotions.

_Not that he was great at sharing before the island anyway._ Felicity added internally.

Felicity made a point of clearing her throat loudly, pulling Oliver and Diggle from their shared fit of laughter when she did. After having dealt with her tendency to babble for almost as long as she could talk, Felicity was well aware that she needed to change the topic of conversation before she embarrassed herself further. Thankfully, there actually was something for Felicity to use to wrench Oliver from the thoughts she knew would be currently racing through his mind. That afternoon had been marked on Felicity's calendar for a few days, Moira was expecting to meet her and Oliver for lunch, which Felicity had no doubt would be a truly  _delightful_ experience.

"We should probably make a move anyway, your mother is expecting us for lunch."

As she had expected, her comment had definitely turned Oliver's thoughts away from the path they had been on. It was impossible for her not to notice the way Oliver's expression dropped at that, almost as if the mask he wore in public was falling into place at the mere mention of a lunch meeting with Moira. Unlike Oliver though, Felicity was fully aware of why the lunch date had been added to both her and Oliver's calendars; Walter. The Englishman had been in Australia a little over a week and it was pretty obvious that Moira was unaccustomed to Walter taking such trips without her, though Felicity supposed that she couldn't blame the older woman for that. Felicity was seriously beginning to wonder if Walter's extended disappearance had anything to do with the investigation he had asked her to make into ' _Tempest_ '.

After that length of time, Felicity was feeling the strain of ignoring the voice in her head that was demanding she tell Oliver about Moira Queen's super sketchy offshore LLC. Felicity was reasonably sure that Moira had no idea of her involvement in Walter's discovery of Tempest, and that whatever he had learnt thereafter that had resulted in him fleeing the country. That was if Moria even knew that Walter had found out anything about Tempest, which Felicity was seriously hoping she hadn't. Though, despite those hopes, Felicity knew there was a pretty good chance that Walter had confronted the Queen matriarch about whatever he had found in that warehouse, and some part of her made a note to investigate the site herself later down the line.

_XXX_

Felicity had been shot at…again.

Not only had she been shot at but he had failed to catch the shooter. Thankfully, with some mild shock as the exception, Felicity was unharmed, though his mother was stuck with bed rest as a result of her concussion. It was a stroke of Oliver's awful karma that Felicity had been down range of the shooter in the first place, the blonde had insisted that she head to Queen Consolidated a few minutes earlier than Oliver, to avoid any unnecessary press attention. While the two of them were a couple, though what that actually meant Oliver was unsure, they were trying to avoid letting that information become public knowledge. The first time they had announced their relationship to the world the duo had been put under a microscope by the Starling City tabloids, and they both agreed that it was too risky to chance that happening again, given their lifestyle choice.

Oliver was beginning to regret his decision to allow Felicity to join his crusade and it had been less than a week. Between having to avoid the press at all times, which made attempting to have public dates exceptionally awkward, and the blinding risk that Felicity was being exposed to, Oliver was having a hard time consolidating his two personas.

Though some good news had manged to come out of the whole debacle, Felicity nor Moira had been the intended target of the shooter. Detective Lance had been particularly useful in providing that information, the only victim of the attack allegedly had some deep mob connections, which was particularly good news for Oliver. It meant that 'The Hood' could go and punch someone, hard.

The problem with that plan was that he was still trapped in the foundry, waiting for Felicity to arrive back from Queen Consolidated. For whatever insane reason the blonde had insisted on going back into QC to complete some work that she had left unfinished. Even after learning that Felicity wasn't the intended target of the attack, Oliver wasn't comfortable with her being out in public without him or Diggle there to watch out for her.

Thankfully, it was less than a minute later when Oliver heard the familiar sound of her high heels clicking against the metal steps to the foundry, a sound that sent an unfamiliar wave of warmth and reassurance through him. Oliver slowed his attacks against the training dummy when Felicity came into view, coming to a stop when she reached her desk. Turning his back to her in order to grab a towel, Oliver masked the smile that attempted to overcome his features when he noticed the way Felicity's eyes had raked over his body when she had entered the room. On some primeval level, Oliver was strangely thrilled by the way his body distracted the adorable blonde.

"So, I did some research," Felicity began, taking a seat at the newly refurbished I.T. station as she pulled up a series of files. "Paul Copani, the guy who was killed by the motorcyclist worked for Bertinelli Construction, owned by one Frank Bertinelli."

"The mob boss." Diggle's words seemed more of a statement than a question.

"Yep, but I did some digging, it turns out that Copani isn't the only one of Bertinelli's crew who's been killed recently."

That was all Oliver needed to hear, if someone was taking out members of the Bertinelli crime family, it was only a matter of time before it developed into a full-on mob war, and Starling would take some serious damage in the cross fire. Oliver had made it to his equipment before Felicity and Diggle had even seen him move.

"Get me an address, Mr. Bertinelli is overdue for a visit from 'The Hood'."

It was only when Oliver was half-way through donning his jacket that he realised there was no sound coming from neither Felicity or Diggle. Turning slowly, Oliver took in the befuddled expressions of the two people in front of him, and shot them back a similar look.

"What?" Oliver stretched out the word a little, his mind half-distracted by trying to deduce his partners' confusion for himself.

"It's just, you can't be serious about this…" Felicity attempted before trailing off, seemingly not able to find the words to make her point, which was concerningly unusual for the blonde.

"I think what Felicity is trying to say is that; both your mother and your girlfriend were shot at earlier today, and the way you process this emotionally is to attack a mob boss as your vigilante alter-ego." Diggle stood forward as he spoke.

"I'm not trying to process anything emotionally." Oliver couldn't help feeling the sting of those words, knowing how that must have sounded to Felicity.

It wasn't that he didn't care, far from it. Oliver was trying to keep the anger and guilt he was feeling as a result of the attack repressed, he couldn't risk going out into the field if his head wasn't 100% in the game, and Oliver knew that keeping those emotions out of his mind was the only thing that would work.

"Oliver," Felicity began, her voice disarmingly gentle considering his comment. "Your mom is at home, suffering and frightened because she almost got killed today, right now that's where you need to be."

Oliver attempted to open his mouth to argue but Felicity simply held a finger up in order to silence him before continuing.

"Digg and I will stay here and do some more digging into the Bertinelli's, but you need to go back to the mansion and look after Moira."

The expression that Felicity wore when she finished speaking was one that Oliver knew not to argue, it was her ' _we both know I'm right so just give up_ ' look, one Oliver had suffered far too many times before the island. It seemed his decision had been made for him, Oliver was headed home to watch his mother.

_XXX_

Awkward couldn't even begin to describe the atmosphere after Oliver had arrived back at the Queen Mansion, somehow, he had forgotten how difficult it could be to maintain his façade in the presence of his family. Since Felicity had discovered his secret, their 'civilian life' had become unmeasurably better, the two of them had managed to develop an even closer relationship now they held no secrets. The drawback being that when Oliver was around the rest of his family he struggled to keep his public persona in line.

Which was the sole reason that his evening had been so strange so far. Thankfully, Moira had remained relatively silent throughout the evening, both the shock from the attack and her residual anger from his severe lack of attendance at most of the recent Queen family events had led to her wanting to avoid conversation. Though that hadn't helped much, Oliver was sound in his conclusion that being on the receiving end of the silent, judgemental glares of Moira Queen was significantly worse than having her scold him for his behaviour. To make matters worse, Thea had elected to go out clubbing and both of his partners were still at the foundry, which meant that he had no relief from his duties as her temporary carer.

Just as that particular thought crossed his mind, Oliver heard the sound of the doors of Queen Mansion clicking open, and the unmistakable voice of Tommy Merlyn calling out into the corridors. After excusing himself, perhaps with a little more haste than was necessary, he moved out of his mother's room and down the main steps to the manor, seeing his 'best friend' standing in the entrance hall, a bright grin flush across his lips.

On seeing Oliver, Tommy's grin faltered a little. "Hey, I heard about your mom. Is she alright?"

"Well she's upstairs, resting. More shaken up than anything." Oliver came to a stop a few paces before Tommy. "I appreciate you stopping by."

"Don't mention it," Tommy trailed off, his grin returning. "There is something else I wanted to talk to you about."

"Sure."

Instead of offering an answer, Tommy walked past Oliver and into the main living room of the mansion. Tommy stopped at the lengthy table that held the second finest bottles of the Queen family's whisky collection, and poured a glass for both himself and Oliver. While Tommy had been pouring the drinks, the archer had followed him into the room and paused on the other side of the table, taking a glass once it was offered to him.

After taking a sip from the glass, Tommy spoke. "So, I'm going to dinner with Laurel, as in a date."

"Tommy, that's great." Oliver couldn't help the small grin that tugged at the corner of his lips, feeling an unusual sense of pride for his friend, knowing that he had finally picked up the courage to ask Laurel out.

_**January 20** _ _**th** _ _**2007** _

" _Tommy!" Oliver did little to keep his voice down as he marched into his best friend's room._

_It had happened again, he and Felicity had been in Starling for a week so they could celebrate Thea's birthday, and Tommy had convinced them to go clubbing. The youngest Queen turned 10 that Friday, which thankfully meant Oliver had a full 24 hours to recover from his hangover, though currently he couldn't feel the throbbing in his head through his anger._

_He and felicity had headed home early the previous night, 1am was early by Oliver and Tommy's standards, and so Tommy and Laurel had stayed at the club for a few more hours. Though little over 2 hours after they had left, Felicity had received a phone call from a distraught and furious Laurel. Not long after the duo had returned to the mansion, Tommy and Laurel had moved onto another nightclub, where the Merlyn heir had met, and went home with, some nameless blonde girl. Needless to say, Laurel had been equally angry as she had been upset and, not knowing what to do, had called Felicity in the hopes of having a calm voice._

_Without hesitation, Oliver had immediately got dressed again and picked Laurel up from the club Tommy had left her at and insisted that she stay at the manor for the night, not wanting to risk her father learning of Tommy's actions. Which brought him to that morning, storming into Tommy's room to attempt to talk some sense into him._

" _Oliver?" Tommy questioned slowly, clearly only just waking up, though Oliver doubted he had actually managed to get much sleep._

_Much to his relief, the girl that had had taken home was nowhere to be seen, much like many of Tommy's conquests she had left early so as to avoid the awkwardness of the morning after. Oliver continued onwards until he reached the edge of Tommy's king-sized bed, wrenching the bedsheets away when he did._

" _What the fuck is wrong with you, Tommy?" Oliver shouted, any semblance of reason gone from his mind. "You spend the entire evening flirting with Laurel, buying her drinks, refusing to let her out of your sight for more than five minutes and then you ditch her right at the end of the night for some bimbo?"_

" _Hey, don't call her a bimbo." Tommy's raspy reply came as he slowly moved into a sitting position._

" _Oh yeah? Then what was her name?"_

" _I…" Tommy trailed off, a puzzled look overcoming his features. "That's not the point."_

" _Of course, that's the fucking point, Tommy!" Oliver's voice became even louder. "Laurel adores you and you know it, you spend half your time talking about how great you think she is and you never make a move. Then, whenever you actually have any opportunity to do something about it, you decide to hook up with some nameless chick you'll never see again."_

" _Look, Oliver, you don't know…"_

" _What I'm talking about?" Oliver cut over him. " Do you even hear yourself right now, Tommy? That girl is in_ love  _with you and I'm more than certain you feel the same about her, but you wanna know the worse thing about it? Laurel is finally getting wise to your shit Tommy, and if you don't man up and do something about it soon, you're gonna lose her for good."_

_**Present Day** _

"Laurel deserves someone special, and so do you." Oliver finished, taking a small sip from his glass when he did.

"Thanks, man. I just actually needed to say it out loud, you know? Feels kinda surreal." Tommy smiled at him.

"Yeah, I know, I got hit with more or less the same thing when I finally convinced Felicity to go out with me." The smile that pushed its way onto his lips as a result of that memory was one Oliver couldn't subdue. Taking a large sip from his whisky, Oliver pushed the smile back down and met Tommy's eyes.

"Hurt her and I'll snap your neck." The voice Oliver used for those few words was dangerously close to the one he used as 'The Hood'.

Oliver almost had to bite his tongue in order to stifle a chuckle at Tommy's expression. Despite there being only being a very small part of him that was actually serious about that threat, Tommy seemed to take his words very seriously, and the effect it had on him was so much more amusing than Oliver had hoped.

"I'm kidding."

The laugh that overcame them both in that moment was almost enough for Oliver to forget how much had changed over the last 5 years. It was one of the few genuine moments Oliver had with Tommy since his return and he could sense the vast difference in the atmosphere, which only aided in his newly found mood. After a few brief moments, Oliver could hear the sound of footfalls over his fading laughter and turned, half expecting to see Thea returning home early having had some falling out with one of her friends. Much to his surprise, Oliver saw Felicity stood in the doorway, smiling brightly at both him and Tommy.

"Hi, Oliver." The blonde spoke. "Tommy."

"Hey 'Lissy." Tommy returned her grin.

"Oliver, can I talk to you for a minute?" Felicity added, walking out into the hall without waiting for a reply.

Turning to excuse himself, Oliver saw the cocky grin that had overtaken Tommy's features.

"Oh man, that is so not a good sign." The Merlyn heir grinned.

Choosing to ignore Tommy, Oliver followed Felicity out into the hall, more than a little puzzled by the look of concern that was written across her features.

"What is it?" Oliver spoke quickly.

"Something's spooked Bertinelli, he's sent his enforcers to collect extra 'protection money', I think the next hit is going to be at Russo's." Felicity answered.

Before Oliver could even consider a reply, his gaze flicked across to the stairs, knowing that if he was to stop Bertinelli's enforcers he would have to leave his mother, and a large part of him did not want to risk leaving her alone.

"I'll stay and watch Moira, go." Felicity's words pulled Oliver's gaze back to her.

Quickly leaning in towards her, Oliver planted a brief kiss against Felicity's cheek before rushing out the doors of the manor, heading to his bike.

_XXX_

"Our shooter's a woman." Oliver's voice cut through the silence of the foundry when he arrived.

Felicity practically jumped from her seat at the I.T. station at the suddenness, a small voice in her head scolding her for not getting used to Oliver's unannounced arrivals. She was certainly glad to see him unharmed, despite knowing how well trained Oliver was, Felicity always feared for him when he was out as 'The Hood', a nickname that needed serious work in her opinion.

"A woman?" Diggle questioned as Oliver crossed to his equipment table. "You make an ID?"

"No," Oliver began as he placed his bow back into its crate. "But she's definitely not Triad, so whatever her reasons for attacking Bertinelli are, they definitely don't have anything to do with taking out the competition."

"That pretty much widens our search to anyone who's been a victim of the Bertinelli's." Felicity added, turning in her chair to face Oliver.

Oliver was clearly a little startled by her presence, and Felicity quickly realised that he was expecting her to be at the Queen Mansion with Moira.

"What're you doing here?" The question came sooner than she had expected.

"Walter's back, he took over." Felicity answered with a smile.

In fact, Walter had arrived at the mansion a little less than an hour after Oliver had left her, allowing Felicity to head straight to the foundry. Apparently, Walter had already been on his flight home when Thea had finally reached him with news of the attack and so he had rushed back to the mansion as quickly as possible, much to Felicity's relief. It had been beyond awkward for her to spend time with Moira, especially since she had to come up with a  _believable_ excuse for Oliver's absence.

Believable hadn't exactly been the excuse Felicity formed, she had simply blurted out a half-unintelligible string of words that resembled a problem at the club that Oliver had to sort immediately. In fairness to her, Moira did seem to be convinced by Felicity's excuse, though more in that she thought Oliver was lying to Felicity about his whereabouts as opposed to Felicity lying to her.

Walter's unexpected arrival had led Felicity to quickly excuse herself from an awkward conversation with Moira and head to the foundry, which felt unnervingly homelier than the Queen Mansion at that stage in her evening.

"Good," Oliver spoke, pulling Felicity from her thoughts. "Can we compile a list of potential suspects, any women that have been affected by the Bertinelli's? Widows, daughters, sisters, or if they've suffered directly."

"I'm disappointed that you need to ask." Felicity smiled as she started writing an algorithm to fit Oliver's criteria.

"Filter out the ones who don't have any firearms or firearm training."

A few brief clicks later and she was done, leaning back in the desk chair with a grin of pride.

"Done, it'll take a few hours to compile the full list, the Bertinelli's have left a lot of victim's over the years."

This was the side of their work that Felicity was yet to adapt to. She'd heard about all these things; mobs, murder, the senseless crime. Yet, the whole time she had lived in Starling Felicity had been a part of the 1%, she had never truly experienced what it was like to be a part of the world where these things happened daily, and it horrified her. Over the last 5 years Felicity had appreciated the gifts that being attached to the Queen family had brought her but when she signed onto Oliver's crusade, she had realised how sheltered she had been. Sure, she had attend the fund raisers and gala's, she'd made insane donations to the SCPD, to children's homes and the companies like CNRI, but it was only when she joined Oliver's crusade that she realised how fruitless all of those endeavours were.

In the last week alone, Felicity had made more of a difference to Starling City as a vigilante than she had in 5 years as a socialite, and that both frightened and thrilled her. That thought itself caused some doubts to well-up in Felicity, doubts that she hadn't even considered until that point, she had been so consumed with the rush of fighting crime that she hadn't realised that she was actually enjoying it. She now spent her evenings fighting crime out of the basement of her boyfriend's club and she enjoyed it.

"Just to be sure, I still think the best way to figure out who's trying to target the Bertinelli's is from the inside." The sound of Oliver's voice wrenched Felicity back to the situation at hand.

"Wait, you want to go undercover? With the mob?" It was clear to her that Oliver had picked up on the incredulous tones in her words.

"No, I want  _us_ to go undercover with the mob. Bertinelli wants the contract to build the Applied Sciences division, that's our way in." Oliver spoke evenly, seemingly skipping over the admission that he wanted Felicity in there with him.

In the short week that she had been a part of his crusade, Felicity had come to accept that Oliver occasionally had crazy ideas that both her and Diggle knew they could do nothing about. Oliver's latest idea was undoubtedly the craziest by far. Felicity was far from cut out for undercover work, she had struggled enough lying to Moira Queen about Oliver, let alone convincing a terrifying mob boss that they were genuine about giving him a multimillion dollar deal.

"You can't be serious." Diggle was questioning Oliver, it was clear that he thought that idea was as ridiculous as Felicity did.

"It's the only way, the media knows I wanted nothing to do with QC so Bertinelli will never believe me if I go on my own. Felicity is the obvious choice; the press is already saying that she's a shoe in for the head of Applied Sciences."

She hated it when he did that, came up with rationalisations for the insane plans, especially when said rationalisations actually make sense. Felicity had to admit that Oliver's reasoning made pretty good sense, a solid businessman like Bertinelli wouldn't be easily convinced by Oliver's intentions with the press being all over his lack of commitment to Queen Consolidated and Oliver was right about her being the perfect cover.

The press had been running with the rumours of Felicity being promoted to the head of Applied Sciences ever since the new division was announced. Though Felicity herself knew that there was no truth in it. Walter had mentioned it to her, not as an official job offer but simply if she would be interested in the position. It had been difficult but Felicity had said no, knowing that she struggled enough to maintain the, relatively, small I.T. department, let alone the colossal project that was to be Applied Sciences.

"Oliver, we can't put Felicity in the field, if something goes wrong then…"

"I'll do it." Felicity cut over Diggle.

The speed at which both men's eyes flew to her at that comment almost brought a smile to her lips, at least it would have done if the situations wasn't quite so serious. She knew she was taking a pretty big risk by agreeing to visit Bertinelli with Oliver but she also knew it was one he  _needed_ her to take, which meant she would do it.

"Felicity, are you sure?" It was Diggle who spoke first, Oliver choosing to simply throw her a prideful smile.

"If Oliver thinks that's what we need to do to get this guy, I trust him." Felicity turned to the man in question as she finished speaking, returning his smile.

"Well, I think you're both mad." Diggle continued, looking between the couple. "But if that's the plan, I'm going to be in the car outside, just in case."

"I never doubted that for a second, John." Felicity grinned at him. "So, time to go visit a mobster."

_XXX_

Frank Bertinelli.

Mob boss, murderer, all around scumbag, and for some reason he was bringing Felicity into this.

The man was every bit as slimy as Oliver expected, even the way Bertinelli spoke set him a little on edge. The mob boss was simply too nice, he had years of practice in convincing everyone of his ' _honest_ ' persona, much in the way that Oliver himself did, but somehow Bertinelli managed to seem like he had rehearsed everything he said, and more than once. That was the reason Oliver felt so on edge. Even Bertinelli's compliments to Felicity on their arrival, despite being to social norm for their circle, had seemed to be overdramatic, as if he were simply reciting a script he had rehearsed a hundred times before.

"I want the contract to build Queen Consolidated's new Applied Sciences Division." Bertinelli spoke, cutting through the, reasonably, comfortable silence that had fallen between the group.

"And we are inclined to give it to you." Felicity responded before Oliver had the chance to speak.

"Oliver, it was my impression from the local news that you weren't going to be involved in your family's business." Bertinelli added sceptically, his gaze turning to Oliver.

"With after the attack on my mother and Water having been in Australia, a lot of the decisions at QC are falling to me." Oliver answered quickly.

"Mm," Bertinelli began, drawing out the syllable. "Well regardless, your mother wasn't quite so enthusiastic about the offer. How is she by the way?"

Those last few words sparked some strange anger within Oliver, it had been the way Bertinelli paused before speaking them that the archer had picked up on more than anything. Bertinelli had paused, very briefly but just enough for Oliver to pick up on it. There was something a little sardonic in his eyes too, as if a part of the man almost saw Moira getting caught in the crossfire as some sort of karmic retribution.

"She's at home, recuperating." Oliver kept his voice level as he spoke, trying a little too carefully not to give anything away to Bertinelli.

"And, Frank, we were very sorry to hear about what happened to Paul Copani." Felicity added, almost immediately after Oliver had finished.

Oliver had to fight the sudden feeling of pride for Felicity he felt in that moment, how well she was able to swap between the no-nonsense Felicity Smoak, that he saw when she was at QC, and the innocent, caring Felicity that he had just witnessed. Despite both his own reservations of bringing her into the field and the constant warnings from Diggle, Oliver was amazed at how well Felicity was coping.

"He was a good friend," Bertinelli's eyes dropped a little when he spoke, "The violence in this city, sometimes I wonder why I stay."

That was a feeling Oliver knew all too well. After everything that had happened to him, all the violence and death Oliver had been surrounded by the last five years, he forgave himself for those times when his thoughts drifted to leaving Starling behind, forgetting the mission and living the rest of his days somewhere more peaceful. He never would, the mission was too important, the city needed saving, but those thoughts still came. Despite everything, he was only human.

"I've had the same thought myself." Oliver relented.

"So why did you come back? Bertinelli met Oliver's eye. "After that island, you could have settled anywhere in the world."

"Because Starling," Oliver began, turning to look at Felicity and taking one of her hands in his as he did. "And the people in it, are my home."

The way Felicity smiled at that somehow made the rest of the world fall away. Oliver wasn't prone to public demonstrations of his affection for Felicity, unless it was necessitated by the presence of the press, but in that moment, it had felt right. Not only was it the utter truth, Oliver noticed that Bertinelli had a similar smile on his face, which meant there was someone that he was staying in Starling for too. He might have been a criminal but, just like Oliver himself did, there was someone in his life that somehow made the things he did so much more bearable.

"Frank," a voice cut though the silence that had fallen. "We've got some real trouble at Russo's."

Oliver recognised the source of the voice the second he turned to face it. Nick Salvati, the enforcer that he had fought at Russo's. If Bertinelli's men had found something there that could lead them to the shooter's true identity, then Oliver needed to know what that was. Though he couldn't just leave and tail Salvati to find out what he knew, that would make Bertinelli far too suspicious.

"Excuse us a moment, will you?" Bertinelli didn't wait before getting to his feet and leaving the room.

The look that Oliver and Felicity shared in that moment told him that they were on exactly the same page, whatever was going on at Russo's, they needed to know. The duo waited a moment before following Bertinelli out of the room, emerging out into the main hall to see the mobster stood with his top enforcer.

"Oliver, Felicity, I'm so sorry. Something come up, we'll have to reschedule this meeting for another time."

"Of course," Oliver spoke as he held out his hand to Bertinelli. "Just call when you're ready."

Bertinelli quickly shook Oliver's hand, before doing the same to Felicity.

"Nick." Oliver acknowledged the enforcer, shaking the other man's hand as he did.

That was when Oliver made his move. As Salvati turned his gaze to Oliver, the archer used his free hand to slip the same tracking device he had used on Derek Reston into the enforcers sports jacket. The movement took less than a second and it was clear that Salvati nor Bertinelli saw it.

Less than a minute later Oliver and Felicity were sinking into the backseat of the car Diggle had driven them to Bertinelli's estate in.

"I bugged Salvati, let's find out what they know."


	13. Chapter 13

 

Helena Bertinelli.

Why did his life always have to be so complicated?

After leaving Bertinelli's home, Oliver and the team had tailed Salvati to some warehouse that was owned by Bertinelli Construction. While Felicity and Diggle had listened to the audio coming through the bug Oliver had planted on Salvati, the archer had been changing into his  _other_  suit and had manged to gear up just in enough time to rescue Helena.

The problem came in what the trio had learnt from the bug; Helena, in her own misguided way, was avenging her fiancé. If it hadn't been for the trail of bodies left behind, Oliver thought he might have been sympathetic to her cause. Except, they couldn't bring Helena in. Oliver had no tangible proof that the woman was behind any of the attacks on Bertinelli's men apart from the audio from the bug he planted on Salvati, which Felicity had assured him would not stand up in court, and given the revised boundaries of the mission, Oliver couldn't just put an arrow through her.

"So, she's targeting her own family, and here I thought you had parental issues." Diggle remarked, a faint hint of a smile tugging at his lips.

The trio had sat in relative silence since they returned to the foundry, each processing the information in their own way. Oliver had hardly moved from his attack on the training dummy, there was something about the workout that he found therapeutic, it helped him to think. Diggle's remark broke the awkward silence that had befallen them, and Oliver didn't miss the slight grin that came across Felicity's lips at the same time she threw Diggle a glare.

"It's not a joke, Diggle." Oliver berated the ex-soldier, stepping away from the dummy.

"Oliver," Felicity began, raising from her seat before the computer station. "Whatever's Helena's reasons are, she still murdered four men in cold blood, she shot at your mother. We have to stop her."

Of course, Felicity was right, she always was. That didn't stop Oliver from seeing just how similar he and Helena were, she was exactly the same as he was when he first returned from the island; killing everyone she targeted and damning the consequences. A, small, part of him actually wanted to help her, to try and show Helena that there was a better way. After all, Oliver appreciated her motives all too well.

Diggle had managed to put those particular thoughts to rest, the bodyguard had been able to see right through Oliver the minute he got back in the car to return to the foundry, he had known exactly what to say. Thankfully, Diggle had reminded Oliver that the only reason that he had managed to find ' _a better way_ ' was because of Felicity, because of the change she inspired him to make, and that was something that Helena didn't have.

The thought kept playing at Oliver's mind though; was there really nothing he could do to help Helena? After everything he had been through, Oliver knew more than most what it felt like to want revenge at any cost, so maybe there was some way for him to help Helena channel that anger into something better.

Yet, there were Diggle's words again, forcing Oliver to realise how ridiculous a notion that was. Helena Bertinelli was a criminal, plain and simple and, just like every other criminal he had faced, Oliver had to take her down, regardless of her motives.

"You're right," Oliver spoke, after concluding his internal debate. "Bertinelli is still going to think this is the triad, and if Bertinelli retaliates against the Triad or is perceived to, the Triad is gonna rain down hell and innocent people are gonna be killed."

"We've gotta assume that's her plan, get her father and the Triad to go to war." Diggle added, taking a step toward Oliver. "And with his right-hand dead, Bertinelli's going to be on the warpath."

That was something Oliver hadn't had the time to prevent, in the confusion after he had arrived at the warehouse to take down Salvati and his men, Helena had managed to get free, breaking the enforcers neck when she did. Somehow, Helena had managed to slip away while Oliver had been cleaning up the rest of the rent-a-thugs, meaning she was all the more likely to be ready for the next step of her plan. Revenge made people do twisted things, that was a lesson Oliver had learnt all too well over the last five years.

"Digg's got a point, right now Bertinelli's organisation and the Triad is a powder keg waiting to explode. Helena won't have to do much to set it off." Felicity met Oliver's eyes when she finished, seemingly waiting for him to give them their next move.

This was one of the few things Oliver didn't like about bringing Diggle and Felicity into his crusade, he was, unofficially, their leader and so he was the one looked to whenever needed. Oliver was far from used to it, over the last five years he had spent most of his time following orders as opposed to giving them. Between Slade, Waller, Anatoly and Talia, Oliver hadn't had much experience leading people, which made his new situation all the more uncomfortable.

"Diggle, I want you to keep tabs on the Bertinelli estate, the second you see a Triad member I want to know."

"Copy that." Diggle kept his answer short, quickly checking his sidearm before disappearing up the stairs to the club.

"What about me?" Felicity spoke, pulling Oliver's attention toward her.

"You need to get to QC, you do have a job to worry about Felicity." Oliver smiled at her.

"Ugh, I hate you so much." The blonde whined, slowly getting up from her chair.

"No, you don't." Oliver kept a bright grin across his lips, purposely bating Felicity.

"No," Felicity began, a similar smile coming over her lips. "I don't."

With that, Felicity pushed herself up onto her tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss against Oliver's lips, and the archer could practically feel her smile grow as she did. A moment later Felicity pulled away, a gentle blush coming over her cheeks when she met Oliver's eyes. Without saying anything, the blonde quickly gathered up her phone and tablet, stuffing them into her bag, before turning and walking towards the stairs.

Before she had made it to the first step she turned back to face Oliver.

"We've got that double date with Tommy and Laurel tonight, don't forget." Felicity didn't give Oliver a chance to reply before she disappeared up to the club.

Yep, Oliver's life was far too complicated.

_XXX_

"Why are you so incapable of letting things go?" Felicity asked herself, staring at her reflection in the glass of a picture frame.

She'd arrived to her office at QC with an itch, that nagging voice in the back of her head that begged her endlessly when there was a puzzle to be solved; a voice that Felicity knew there was only one way to silence. So, she'd done what she did best, she hacked. True to her karma, Felicity had found exactly what she hoped she wouldn't.

As soon as Felicity had learnt that Walter had returned home she became curious as to how he and Moira had resolved whatever had happened between them after the discovery of Tempest. The silence that the older couple maintained about the issue only made her want to know more, Felicity had truly been expecting Walter to share his discovery with her. That silence was the source of her need to dig further into Tempest and that money transfer, and oh how Felicity wished she hadn't.

It was almost half an hour after she had made her discovery that Felicity decided to act on the information she had uncovered, half an hour and one painful internal debate. She desperately wanted to tell Oliver about what she had learnt, the entirety of their new relationship was based upon them not having any secrets from each other. Felicity didn't include the knowledge of whatever Oliver had gone through on the island in that regard, as much as she wanted to know what had happened to him she didn't want to force him to relive any more painful memories.

Keeping Tempest, and whatever that entailed, from Oliver was taking a toll on her, especially given this latest discovery, yet not matter how much Felicity wanted to tell Oliver, she knew that there was no way to predict how he would respond to that revelation. So, Felicity decided to play her cards close to her chest or, at least, until she actually knew what was going on.

Which was why she was walking into Walter's office, with no real plan on how to deal with asking more questions about Tempest.

"How was your trip to Australia? I've always wanted to go. Down under. It's just- I have this thing about kangaroos. More of a phobia. They wig me out. They look evil, and I'm sure their picture's up on like everything everywhere in that country." She was rambling already, something for which Felicity internally scolded herself.

"The trip was fine, Felicity, and thank you for keeping things running in my absence. I know how hard you must have worked." Walter offered her a smile at that.

Felicity was glad to see that Walter was in, reasonably, good spirits, that more than likely meant that things didn't go too badly with Moira.

"I take it there was something you wanted to ask me about? You've never been one for small talk." Walter spoke, the smile slowly fading.

Swallowing hard, Felicity took a few more steps towards Walter's desk, doing her best not to let her nerves get to her. As hard as it was for her to discuss this with Walter, Felicity was more than glad that she was more or less a part of the Queen family, it made the whole thing a lot easier for her.

"Yes, I did." Felicity took a deep breath before continuing. "It's about Tempest, Moira's mysterious LLC, the one she diverted company funds to."

Felicity took a moment to scold herself internally for rambling again.

"I appreciate your diligence, Felicity, but it was a simple misunderstanding between my wife and I. Everything's been resolved." Walter kept his voice level, a little too level as far as Felicity was concerned.

That thought worried her a little, working with Oliver was already making her suspicious of people she had trusted for years. A few months ago, Felicity would never have doubted a word Walter told her. Now, she was questioning things that any other person would believe without hesitation.

"No. See, it hasn't. There was something about the money transfer that felt hinky to me. The money Moira withdrew from the company, I wasn't the only one who tracked it. She was being shadowed by another entity, and whoever it is, they're good. NSA good. But, as you know, I'm good, too. So even though they left almost no trace of their presence in our system, I did manage to find one thing. Well, one image. Does that symbol mean something to you, Walter?" When she finished, Felicity held out the piece of paper that held all the information she managed to find.

It worried her, that someone almost better than her had been looking into Tempest. That meant that there was someone with similar suspicions about the Queen family, someone who might have found the same warehouse, someone who might have been there themselves. Felicity was worried, and that was one feeling that she didn't do particularly well.

"No, it doesn't." Walter's eyes came away from the paper and met Felicity's.

"Walter, what's going on?" Felicity asked, taking a seat opposite her mentor. "What was in that warehouse? Because if this is something that affects Oliver, or me, or anyone in this family, then I need to know."

 _Where did that come from?_ Felicity couldn't help but to say that internally. She was far from used to being that assertive, especially with her boss, that was a tone of voice that Felicity hardly even used on her own employees in the IT department.

"Felicity, there is nothing to be concerned about, Moira and I have discussed this and the situation is resolved." Walter's smile returned, though Felicity could almost sense how forced it was.

"Okay," Felicity began, getting to her feet. "Well, if you need anything else, you know where to find me."

As she walked from Walter's office, there was one thing Felicity was sure of; whatever the ' _situation_ ' was, it was most certainly not resolved.

_XXX_

Oliver knew of six different ways to kill a man just using his right hand, yet he couldn't think of anything worse than a double date. It pained him just to think about the idea. As much as Oliver genuinely enjoyed the company of Tommy, Laurel, and Felicity, being forced to keep up the mask of pretence while he made small talk sounded like a form of torture worse than any he had already experienced.

Yet, for whatever reason, he agreed.

Despite his best attempts, Oliver knew exactly why he agreed to it…Felicity. She had asked him about it in that ever-so adorably, infuriating way of hers. With those wide eyes and half-smile that Oliver found it impossible to refuse, and she knew it.

Oliver practically shook his head in order to tune back into the world around him as he walked into Table Salt with Felicity on his arm. Save for the last few minutes, Oliver had barely been able to take his eyes of Felicity, and had fought an impressive mental battle to keep his hands to himself while they were being driven to the restaurant. Given they would be eating that night, Felicity had forgone the elaborate gowns she often wore at the charity galas they attended, and instead opted for a semi-formal, black cocktail dress. A dress that featured a teasingly low neck-line and clung to her curves far too well.

Felicity must have known the effect that the dress would have had on him, a conclusion that Oliver was made even more sure of when the blonde had, unsuccessfully, tried to hide a smug grin throughout the car ride. Thankfully, there had been no paparazzi around the restaurant, somehow the fact that both Oliver Queen and Tommy Merlyn were dining there had escaped the Starling City tabloids.

The first thing that Oliver noticed on their entrance to the restaurant was that Tommy and Laurel were still waiting in the bar, the former wearing an unreasonably sour look, though Oliver assumed that was because Laurel had insisted on waiting for the full party before heading to the table.

"Hey!" Felicity's bright voice cut across the hubbub of the room.

The other couple both turned as Oliver and Felicity came to a stop before them. Oliver couldn't help but to notice the stark change in Tommy's expression when he turned, his trademark grin coming over his lips. If it wasn't for the fact that Oliver practiced that same smile in the mirror most mornings, he would almost have been fooled by Tommy's front. There was something getting to the other man, though Oliver decided not to press the issue.

"Hey, great to see you." Tommy spoke, quickly leaning in to press a kiss to Felicity's cheek, and throwing Oliver a smug wink as he did.

Oliver simply chose to roll his eyes at the Merlyn heir, and noticed that laurel did much the same. Ever since he and Felicity had become a couple, Tommy had always done his best to flirt with the then-brunette as much as possible. It had all been down in the name of winding Oliver up, though he and Felicity both agreed that it was equally as a result of Tommy being astonished that there was actually a girl that didn't fall for the flirtations of Tommy Merlyn.

_**March 24** _ _**th** _ _**2006** _

" _You've got a what now?"_

" _A girlfriend, Tommy." Oliver spoke into the phone, his attempt at hiding his impatience failing completely._

_It had been a little over 2 months since he and Felicity had started dating, and it was becoming harder and harder for Oliver to come up with excuses for Tommy as to why he wasn't sleeping with the majority of the female population of Harvard University. So, after a lengthy discussion with the woman in question, Oliver had finally plucked up the courage to tell Tommy the truth._

" _Okay, is this a practical joke? Are there camera's filming me right now or some shit?" Tommy's voice came, his smile evident in his tone._

_That was the reason Oliver had hesitated so much when it came to telling Tommy about Felicity. As much as Oliver was certain that his best-friend would fully support the relationship when he finally met Felicity for himself, he was equally certain that Tommy wouldn't easily grasp the concept of him becoming a one-woman man._

" _Grow the fuck up, Merlyn."_

" _Wait…" Tommy paused. "You're being serious about this."_

_That was a statement, not a question, so on some subconscious level Tommy had just accepted the news. Some of Oliver's anger faded away at that realisation, though he was still remarkably tense at the situation, though anyone who knew the best-friends well-enough would appreciate Oliver's reservations._

" _Yeah, I'm serious." Oliver spoke, tempering his voice a little._

" _This chick must have some serious tricks to tie Oliver Queen down." Tommy laughed, though Oliver couldn't tell if his best-friend was joking or not._

" _No tricks, Tommy, it's just…time for me to grow up."_

_**Present Day** _

The meal went significantly better than Oliver had anticipated, so far at least. The group had actually manged to allow Oliver to drop the façade and enjoy himself, the conversation staying light enough that even Felicity's occasional sympathetic smiles had stopped. Oliver was somehow enjoying himself, yet another emotion that he was not used to feeling.

"I had forgotten you filled your parents' pool with beer." Oliver said through his smile. "How many cases did that take?"

"Roughly a thousand or so." Tommy laughed, taking a sip from his wine.

The whole group fell into laughter at that. It fell surprisingly good, for Oliver, to be reliving old memories. Despite a part of him being ashamed at some of the things he had done before the island, Oliver had to admit that those memories reminded him of better times. Times when his life wasn't weighed down by the mission, times when he and Felicity were together without the constant fear of their  _other life_ being discovered. It was hard for him to admit but, in that moment, he was content to just be Oliver Queen.

"Your father was so pissed, I thought he was actually going to drown you in it." Oliver smiled.

"Well, death by beer, there's worse ways to go."

The quartet exploded into laugher again at that comment, it was so… _Tommy_. Falling into a comfortable silence, the group went back to finishing their drinks, all enjoying the moment.

"So, how's the night club coming along." Laurel asked, breaking the silence.

"Slower than I expected it to, I've been busy. It's been pretty helpful having Tommy around." Oliver answered.

"Oh yeah, it's been slow, building a club from the ground-up is seriously hard work." Tommy laughed, giving Oliver a knowing smile as he spoke.

All things considered, the building of the club had vastly increased since Tommy had joined him. The Merlyn heir had been able to attend all the meetings and interviews that Oliver had missed due to his nightly activities, and as a result, the club was set to be open far before Oliver's original predictions.

Before anyone could say another word, Felicity's phone began to ring. The blonde swiftly answered the device, exchanging a few words with the person on the other end, before ending the call.

"It's Walter, he needs me at QC." Felicity spoke, offering Oliver an apologetic smile.

"It's fine, go. I'll finish up here." Oliver returned the smile.

The couple both got to their feet and Oliver pressed a brief kiss to Felicity's lips, ignoring the incredulous looks they received from Tommy. Quickly saying her goodbyes, Felicity headed back to the car, disappearing from view. With a smile still on his lips, Oliver sunk back into his chair.

"Dude, why didn't you say you guys were that serious already?" Tommy asked.

"Tommy, we agreed to come on a double date, plus we're living together. How serious did you think we were?" Oliver laughed, doing his best to ignore the knowing look he received from Laurel.

The trio continued to chat and reminisce for a few more minutes before Oliver rose to his feet, taking one of his credit cards from his jacket pocket and placing it on the table.

"If Felicity's been called into the office this late it's going to be something serious, I'm gonna go stock our freezer with mint-chip." Oliver pointed at the card when he finished. "Dinner's on me, you still know my pin, right Tommy?"

Fully knowing that his best-friend did know the number, Oliver turned on his heel and left the restaurant, already beginning to feel a sense of unease without Felicity's presence. Oliver had barely made it out the main door before he received a call from Diggle.

"Diggle, what's the situation?" Oliver asked immediately.

"War, somebody just hit Zhishan, and I think we know who."

_XXX_

The mysterious summons to Queen Consolidated in the middle of the night was…mysterious.

That was Felicity's only thought as she rode the elevator to the executive floor. It was unlike Walter to call her into the office without giving a reason, and it was always a really good reason, the older man did his best to make sure Felicity never did more work than she needed to.

Felicity felt the nerves wash over her as she stepped out of the elevator and into Walter's office. The sensation wasn't dissimilar to getting called into the principal's office, not that Felicity actually knew that sensation herself, she had been a model student.

"You wanted to see me, Walter?"

The older man's eyes quickly ran over her appearance, clearly noticing that Felicity was dressed to the nines, though he chose not to comment. Walter pushed a small notebook across his desk, toward the blonde, and tapped it lightly.

"I want you to find out everything you can about that notebook." Walter began, clearly apprehensive about the situation. "Where it was made, how it was purchased, and what it could mean."

Felicity couldn't help but to feel a small sense of pride, she had been certain that whatever was going on with Tempest was far from resolved, and Walter had just given her a new lead. Her initial excitement was quickly overshadowed by what Walter had just revealed, Tempest was still unresolved. That meant that whatever Moira was involved with was still hanging over the Queen family.

"Felicity, I would appreciate it if this could remain between us." Walter continued, cutting through the brief silence.

That request was something Felicity wasn't convinced she could adhere to, if the notebook that Walter had just given her held some lifechanging secret, she wouldn't be able to keep it from Oliver. A large part of Felicity's conscious was already screaming at her to tell Oliver the truth there and then, she knew full well that he wouldn't take kindly to having a secret that affected his whole family kept from him.

"Walter…" Felicity began. "You need to tell me what's going on."

Felicity could practically see the cogs churning behind Walter's eyes, the older man seemed to be honestly considering her request.

"I can't, yet. I'm hoping that notebook will shed some light on the situation."

"Okay then."

Walter's answer was good enough for her, the older man was clearly as infuriated by the puzzle as she was. Cautiously, Felicity plucked the notebook from the table and quickly scanned it with her eyes. The book seemed ordinary enough, no defining features or markings, even the pages were blank as far as she could tell.

"Felicity," Walter's voice pulled her from her analysis. "I asked Josiah Hudson to look into the same subject matter earlier, he died the next day under questionable circumstances. What I may be asking of you, this mystery, are you sure you want to do this?"

_The plot thickens._

That thought froze her completely. Felicity had just been told that the Head of Security at Queen Consolidated had been murdered, and her first thought was of how that affected the mystery. She had been right, working with Oliver was changing her, and Felicity was honestly not sure of it was for better or for worse.

"I'd do anything to help protect our family, Walter. I know you'd do the same."

Felicity didn't give the older man a chance to answer before she turned and left the room, her answer would have to be enough reassurance for him. It briefly crossed her mind to return to the foundry to investigate the notebook, but Felicity knew it would be all but impossible to keep the secret if she worked at Oliver's vigilante lair, so she opted for returning to her office in the IT Department.

It was almost embarrassing for her to admit how long it took after returning to her office to make the connection, to realise what the notebook was. Once she had studied the book closely, Felicity figured it out. She realised why the image she had pulled from the Tempest hack was so familiar, why, on some subconscious level, she had recognised the notebook.

It was Oliver's.

The UV light had been the final clue, not that it was a clue, the UV light unlocked the whole mystery. She had used the light in an attempt to find some sort of product code that had been stamped in invisible ink, she certainly hadn't expected to see the list of names that she, Oliver and Digg had been using.

Felicity hadn't really known what she had been expecting, but it most certainly hadn't been  _that_.

Her mind had gone into overdrive. Moira had a copy of the list, that alone had dozens of different conclusions, all more terrifying than the last. The first, and safest, rationalization Felicity came to was that Robert Queen simply kept two copies of the list, and had left the second at the Queen Estate when he and Oliver had got on the  _Gambit_.

After that, it got worse. What if Moria had written the list? What if there were more people who knew about it? What if everything Oliver had based his crusade on had been a lie?

She spent nearly half an hour like that, thinking up worse and worse possibilities until there was only one path she could take. It had been eating away at her for a few days but now Felicity's mind was made up, she had to go visit that warehouse.

_XXX_

Frank Bertinelli was a lucky man, that managed to anger Oliver more than anything else that had happened that night.

After Diggle's call, Oliver had raced to the home of the Bertinelli's, arriving just after the Triad did. It hadn't been hard for him to take down most of the foot-soldiers, they had been expecting clumsy gunman, not a trained archer.

Helena Bertinelli had been a different story. The young woman had been stood over her father, gun in hand, still clad in her motorcycle outfit, by the time 'The Hood' had made his way to them. Oliver had only just managed to disarm Helena seconds before she would have shot her father, though a small voice at the back of his head had told him that a month ago, he might have let her pull the trigger.

His fight with Helena had been brief, despite the woman being surprisingly skilled at hand-to-hand combat, she had still never had training like Oliver's, that made it easy for him to take her down.

Then, it had all gone wrong.

Oliver had been too busy fighting Helena that he hadn't even seen it. Frank Bertinelli had pulled a gun, the shot felt louder in the silence of the night, that was what Oliver told himself at least. He had been too slow, Bertinelli had managed to shoot his own daughter, one last act of revenge before the SCPD arrived.

She had survived, or so Oliver hoped. He had stayed with Helena as long as he could, until the police arrived. Oliver barely even knew the woman and still he chanced an encounter with the SCPD just to make sure she pulled through. The worse part about it was that Oliver was unsure of his own motives. A part of him said it was because he was trying to be a better person, that he was trying to save lives. The part that Oliver thought was more honest was telling him that it was because they were the same, that maybe, just maybe, if he had helped her sooner then things could have ended differently.

Though, after returning to the foundry and receiving one of Diggle's lectures, Oliver decided that it didn't matter, that he would never know one way or the other. That thought in itself terrified him. The whole time he had been on the island, everything had been black and white.

Kill or be killed.

Fight or die.

Oliver was far from used to experiencing the shades of grey that had come alongside his return to Starling City.

Following the lecture, Oliver had insisted that Diggle returned home for the evening, despite the ex-soldier's protests. That was something else Oliver was unfamiliar with, having other people around when he needed to process. Sure, there had been other people around him on the island, as well as in Hong Kong and Russia, but whenever things went south Oliver could always process it alone.

He knew that Diggle and Felicity were only doing what they thought was best but Oliver still couldn't help but to feel crowded sometimes. His family, his friends, everything felt so much more intense because of his secret. Even when he was relaxing, when he was supposed to be enjoying himself, Oliver was always a little on edge. He constantly had to be wary of slipping up, of revealing the person he truly was.

It was nearly an hour after his return to the foundry that Oliver started to become concerned about Felicity. Whenever she was set to be working late, she would always call him, tell him not to wait up, or to make sure that the freezer was stocked with mint-chip. Yet he had heard nothing from her since she had got a call from Walter at dinner.

Oliver tried to convince himself that Felicity was alright, that she had simply become so engrossed in whatever problem had befallen QC that she had forgotten to call him. No matter how hard he tried, Oliver couldn't do it. He wasn't sure if it was the tendency to assume the worse that had been instilled into him by the island or if it was natural for people to be paranoid about their significant other, or the fact that Felicity had been shot at and attacked more times than he would care to admit since his return, but Oliver was beginning to panic.

He had just made his mind up to change into his  _day suit_ , as Felicity had dubbed it, and head to QC to check on her when the faint bleeping of the foundry door sounded. Oliver span on his heel to see Felicity walking down the last few steps, still clad in her dress from dinner. It took him a few long strides to cross the room and approach the blonde, fear still flush through his system.

That fear only intensified when he took in Felicity's appearance. He saw the fear in her eyes, the slump in her shoulders, the slight paling of her skin. She might not have been physically hurt but something had happened to her, something bad.

"Felicity?" Oliver tried. "What's happened?"

"You…you might want to sit down." Felicity spoke, walking past Oliver and towards the computer bank.

Oliver followed her, his curiosity outweighed by the sheer panic that was flooding through him in that moment. Something had happened to  _his_ Felicity, someone had done something that had really done her some damage. The IT genius almost looked as though she was in shock.

"I mean I had my suspicions," Felicity began, taking her usual seat before her computers. "I had no idea how wrong I was." She paused to meet Oliver's eyes. "Honestly, Oliver, if I'd suspected anything like this I would have told you sooner, I swear."

Now he was really panicking, Felicity was hardly making any sense. She was almost in a similar state to the night she had learnt his secret, and that scared him.

"Felicity, slow down. What would you have told me about? What's going on?" Oliver's nerves were making him impatient, and that was something the archer was very unfamiliar with.

"Like I said, you're going to want to sit down for this." Felicity repeated.

Begrudgingly, Oliver obeyed, grabbing the stool than sat in front of his equipment table and planting himself opposite Felicity. Oliver hated people telling him to sit, it always implied that bad news was about to arrive and he prefer to be standing to receive bad news. It made I far easier to hit things. Though, if Felicity needed him to be sat to get herself through whatever was about to happen then he would do it.

Nervously, Felicity swallowed hard. "A few weeks back, Walter asked me to look into some money that QC's accountants flagged up. 2.6 million actually. He told me that Moria said she'd invested it in a friend's start up, but something about her explanation didn't make sense."

Oliver's whole body tensed up at that, were Felicity and Walter accusing his mother of embezzling money from Queen Consolidated? He chose to remain silent, to let Felicity finish telling him her story before he jumped to any conclusions.

"So, I looked into it, and there was no investment. The money was used to set up an offshore LLC called Tempest. A company that doesn't exist, save for a warehouse that Tempest bought in Starling City in 2009."

Oliver stayed rooted. "What does that mean?"

"I told Walter about it and that was it. Until tonight."

Felicity paused for a moment and reached into her purse, pulling out a small notebook. One that looked a disturbing amount like…

"Walter gave me this, said it belonged to your mother. It's a copy of your father's notebook, I'm pretty sure they're identical." Felicity held out the book for Oliver to take.

He held the notebook in his hands, remembering that his father's notebook felt exactly the same in those first few days on the island, when he had been using the pages to keep a fire burning. Though the pages were blank, there was no doubt in Oliver's mind that the book was identical.

"It got me thinking, you know how much I hate mysteries. And I kept thinking, kept coming up with worse and worse outcomes so…"

"What did you do?" Oliver cut over her.

"I went to the warehouse, the one Tempest bought." Felicity met his eyes then, and Oliver could see the fear in them, so much stronger than it had been when she'd arrived in the foundry. That was when he realised, Felicity wasn't afraid for herself, she was afraid for him. "I'm so sorry, Oliver."

"Felicity, what did you find?" Oliver did his best to keep his voice level, but even he could hear the fear in it. Felicity had paused and Oliver could more or less see her searching for the words. "Tell me." The impatience was clear then.

"The  _Gambit_. Or at least, what's left of it." Felicity spoke slowly. "I think your mother had it salvaged."

"No." The words were quieter than he had expected, but Oliver still jumped to his feet as he said them.

He didn't even realise what that must have been like for Felicity, having his angry 6ft frame towering over her when she was already terrified. Oliver didn't notice the slight shift in the mood, the extra fear in her eyes.

"I saw it myself, Oliver." Felicity spoke, avoiding meeting his eyes.

He couldn't find any words, no matter how hard he tried. As much as he didn't want to believe it, Oliver knew that Felicity wouldn't have told him unless she was absolutely certain. The  _Queen's Gambit_ had been salvaged by his mother and was now gathering dust in a warehouse in Starling City.

Oliver's carefully constructed house of cards took another vicious blow.

"I need to go to that warehouse, Felicity." As soon as he said it Oliver knew that Felicity would never easily agree to it, she cared for him too much to make him go through that kind of pain and Oliver knew it, but he didn't care. "Take me there, NOW."

_XXX_

John Diggle was a patient man.

In fact, ever since he had signed on with Oliver Queen's crusade the man accredited himself as having the patience of a saint. In the last few months, Diggle had seen and done things he had never imagined, and, somehow, becoming a vigilante was at the bottom of that list.

Though when his two partners in crime had summoned him to their secret lair at 2 a.m., Diggle's patience wore thin. The ex-soldier genuinely liked Felicity, the bubbling blonde always had the ability to light up a room, no matter how tense the situation was, and given their line of work that was a great thing. Oliver…Oliver was a good man, despite what he thought of himself, and surprisingly good company once you had fought through all his defences. Though Diggle had been able to sense the shift in the atmosphere the moment he had arrived at the foundry.

Then he had been regaled with the story. Felicity's investigation, the second notebook, the wreck of the  _Gambit_ being salvaged. Life was complicated when you were a vigilante.

"So, you're telling me that Oliver's mother had the boat salvaged, and that the  _Queen's Gambit_  wasn't sunk by accident?"

Felicity cleared her throat nervously before she answered. "It was definitely an explosion that took the boat down, the scorch marks on the hull pretty much scream ' _bomb_ '. But the  _Gambit_ was at the bottom of the ocean for at least two years before Moira had it recovered, any forensic evidence is long gone."

The news was a lot to take in, Diggle was having to do a lot of compartmentalisation just to keep in tune with the rest of reality.

"And we're sure that this other list is identical?" It might have seemed like a daft question, but Diggle needed to ask it anyway.

"It's the same list." It was Oliver who answered that time. "But if my mom had a copy, then maybe that means that somebody else compiled the list. I always assumed it was my father, but what if it wasn't?"

"What do you mean?"

"I think there's someone else out there, the man who compiled the list. Someone who's more of a danger than every name in that notebook, and I am going to take him down."


	14. Chapter 14

He needed proof.

That was the excuse Oliver had been giving Felicity, Diggle and, more significantly, himself over the past week. Every night since the discovery of the  _Queen's Gambit_  one of his partners in crime had brought up the question;

_When exactly would Oliver be interrogating his mother?_

It was something that no son would ever want to imagine of his mother. The realisation that the sinking of the  _Gambit_  hadn't been an accident, and the implication that Moria had somehow been involved, was still too much for Oliver to process. So, every time that question came up, Oliver simply said he couldn't question her until they had more information.

If he was being fully honest with himself, Oliver was hoping that the team would be able to find something to exonerate his mother. Information that would prove that she was in no way involved with the explosion that sunk the  _Gambit_ , that would give them a reasonable explanation as to why she had the wreck recovered, and how she hid the recovery from the world.

Though all Oliver had been able to find were more questions. Most importantly, why had the  _Gambit_ been intentionally sunk, what had his father done to warrant an assassination?

The nightmares had returned too, that was what had thrown Oliver of his game the most. Even in the company of Felicity, Oliver now dreamt that it was his mother who had sunk the  _Gambit_ , who had been the one to subject him to the five years of hell. The nightmares had even become so bad that Oliver woke Felicity most nights, the realisation that his dreams were scaring her was even worse than the dreams themselves.

Oliver had tried to insist that he would sleep on the couch until the nightmares stopped again, but Felicity simply would not have it. The blonde had been adamant that she would much rather be close to him, to help him through the nightmares, ' _because that's what you do when you love someone_ '.

She had said it again. That word.

 _Love_.

They had said it to each other the night Oliver told her the truth about his crusade, the night they very nearly  _slept together_ , but not since. It had been an admission between the couple that they still refused to give up on each other, a spoken vow that what they felt hadn't dimmed over the last 5 years. Oliver was still far from being used to that particular emotion again. Of course, he had loved Felicity he whole time he had been on the island but there was something different about it. While he had been on Lian Yu, he had loved Felicity but he had never expected to be with her again.

In the last week, Felicity had proved more than ever how strongly she felt about him, how strongly she  _believed_  in him. The blonde had been digging through anything and everything that even remotely pertained to the  _Queen's Gambit_ or Tempest, the worst of which had involved hacking into his mother's personal email. It had taken 10 minutes for Oliver to reassure Felicity that he was comfortable with her crossing that line, though she did have a point. It was a serious breach of privacy, and Diggle had tried to insist that it would be farer to Moira to just confront her about what had been found out.

Somehow, Felicity had managed to do all of that outside of her job at Queen Consolidated. Just like Oliver, the blonde had spent almost all of her free time in the last week at the Foundry. Having Felicity's company beneath the soon-to-be-club felt strikingly different to Diggle's. The sound of her keyboard clicking in the background while he worked out had become almost therapeutic, there was something about it that just made Oliver feel more comfortable, knowing that Felicity was near.

Of course, it hadn't escaped his notice that Felicity's attention would often be pulled away from her work. He had to admit that he enjoyed the way her eyes lingered on him a little too much, but then again, she wasn't exactly subtle about it. Particularly when he used the salmon ladder, Felicity would stop typing completely for a minute or two, which had Oliver using that as a part of his workout a little more than usual. The only downside to that was the feeling that her lingering gaze stirred in Oliver, feelings that he had been doing his best to push down. As much as he and Felicity were 'back together' Oliver didn't want to rush her into anything.

The other thing that Felicity had added to the Foundry was, after a stressful day at QC, her 'normal' life. Oliver always listened to her in those moments, when Felicity would regale him with stories about her day, when she'd complain about the disagreements she'd have with the Deputy Head of IT who hated his boss being a young, blonde woman who was  _way_  smarter than he was, or when she would vent to him about whatever the department's latest setback was. In fact, Felicity had, the previous night, told Oliver about a rather heated debate that she had gotten into with Doug Miller, the Head of Applied Sciences, a man who was on the list. Oliver had found 'The Hood's' next target.

The list.

Both Diggle and Felicity were telling him that he was working himself too hard since their discovery of the  _Queen's Gambit_. In the last week alone Oliver had crossed three names of the list, but as Diggle had told him, 'The Hood's' reputation was preceding him, Oliver hardly had to threaten people any more. If nothing else, his vigilantism was keeping him distracted from whatever was going on with his mother, and that was a good thing.

Though tonight, Oliver wasn't going to be able to keep himself distanced from it. Christmas, it was undoubtedly the worse time of year to have to fake his enjoyment of his family's company. He and Felicity hadn't been given an option in joining the dinner that was being hosted at the Queen Mansion that night. Given that the Chief of Police and an assortment of the one percent were to be there, it was 'proper' to expect Oliver and Felicity.

Which was why Oliver stood, Felicity by his side, in the longue adjoining the dining room at the Queen Mansion. It was the first night in the past week that Oliver had forgone his hood for an Armani suit, and he'd swapped his  _delightful_  conversations with the scum of Starling for small talk with people he disliked even more.

To her credit, Felicity had been doing an incredible job of getting Oliver though said small talk. Every time they would speak to someone, Felicity managed to whisper a shirt brief in Oliver's ear; names, jobs, basic enough stuff but just enough to actually make it look as though Oliver was paying attention to who these people were. Felicity herself had been something else entirely, as much as Oliver thought he wore a mask for these situations, the blonde did exactly the same.

This Felicity stood a little taller, spoke a little slower, her voice a striking mix of the playful and charming girl he knew and the tough-as-nails professional who ran QC's IT Department. Oliver could hardly hide the prideful smile that kept toying at his lips while the worked the room, nor did he miss the looks that his mother was giving him, the same ones he had received from her and his father when he had attended events like these with Felicity before the island.

Oliver hardly had time to process that thought before his mother was summoning the group into the dining room.

The meal was far more awkward than Oliver had been anticipating and, despite the food being of Raisa's incredibly high standard, the atmosphere left more than a little to be desired. Oliver had opted to remain quiet for as much of the meal as he could, only joining into the conversation as and when it was necessary. Felicity on the other hand had been able to keep in touch with the conversation at all times, seemingly having enough knowledge about almost every topic to stay involved.

It almost made Oliver wonder if the universe had something against him, with the conversation managing to move onto Starling City's resident vigilante. He met Felicity's eyes briefly, the two of them fearing what was to come, and knowing they would have to be a little more careful.

"The thing that people forget is that Robin Hood was a criminal." Commissioner Brian Nudocerdo stated.

"And stealing from the rich to give to the poor is really the job of the Democrats." One of the other guests added, a man whose name Oliver had already forgotten.

The table laughed a little at that, all the occupants of the room recognising the only half-joking nature of the comment.

"All joking aside, Commissioner," Malcom Merlyn spoke up. "Crime is down for the first time in five years."

As much as Oliver wasn't Malcom's biggest fan, especially in light of the latest situation with Tommy, he had to give the man some credit for being the one to challenge the Commissioner. It was noticeable the way all the eyes around the table turned to Nudocerdo at that moment, all awaiting his response.

"That's because of the changes my department has implemented."

If he hadn't been paying more attention to her than anything else in the room, Oliver might have missed the way that Felicity had to hide a smile, the two of them both knowing that the Commissioner couldn't have been any more wrong.

"Or perhaps it's because the vigilante's activities have had a chilling effect on the city's criminals." Walter suggested, meeting the Commissioner's glare.

"What are your thoughts, Oliver?"

The suddenness of Malcom's question had thrown him off-guard, Oliver really hadn't been expecting to get dragged into that conversation.

"I think the vigilante needs a better code name than 'The Hood', or 'The Hood Guy'."

Thankfully, his words earned a small round of laughter from the room, even Felicity wore a more comfortable smile at that, knowing how much Oliver hated the name the press had given his alter-ego.

"I agree." Merlyn smiled. "How about; Green Arrow?"

Oliver couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable at that name, it sounded like something out of a kid's comic book. Throwing a colour in before the hero's name just to make them sound more friendly.

"Lame."

"You might be onto something." Felicity said, her eyes moving to Malcom as she sipped her wine. "How's; 'The Arrow' sound?"

Much to Oliver's surprise Felicity's choice got a few nods of acceptance from around the table, even Commissioner Nudocerdo seemed to accept her suggestion, though Oliver seriously doubted that name would ever catch on. It still sounded a little outlandish, but it was undoubtedly better than 'The Hood'.

"You might just be onto something there, Felicity." Merlyn answered.

Before anyone had chance to make another comment, an SCPD officer walked into the room, whispering a few words into the Commissioner's ear. Given the immediately miserable look that consumed Nudocerdo's features, it was clear that something bad was going down. Once the officer was finished speaking, the Commissioner rose to his feet, discarding his napkin onto the table.

"I'm sorry, something's come up."

"Everything okay?" Oliver spoke quickly, though he had no doubt that if there was something going on Diggle would be calling him soon.

"The ' _Arrow_ ' has struck again," Nudocerdo began, making a point of glaring across at Oliver and Felicity. "He just put an arrow in Adam Hunt."

Oliver was so consumed in his own thoughts after that he hardly noticed Nudocerdo leave. He was more than certain that it was a copycat, or someone looking to set him up, because there was no way 'The Hood' killed Adam Hunt. Unless he had developed a seriously bad case of sleeping walking, but Oliver quickly realised how ridiculous that sounded. He had promised Felicity that he would take the whole day off to actually be Oliver Queen instead of 'The Hood', but that was clearly not going to happen.

Just as Oliver suspected, his phone began to ring not a minute after the Commissioner had received the news himself. It seemed fate didn't want him to take a day off.

_XXX_

There was an actual copycat archer.

Felicity's life was becoming endlessly complicated. Oliver had returned to the Foundry in an even worse mood than he had been when he bailed on dinner, which was bad, very bad. It was hardly a surprise that he wasn't taking the revelation well, the SCPD were blaming the murder on 'The Hood', which left the three of them to track down whoever the copycat really was.

On top of all that, Oliver was getting Detective Lance involved. For whatever reason, Oliver had chosen the cop who was running the anti-vigilante task force to ask for help, sometimes Felicity would never be able to understand what went through her boyfriend's mind. Regardless, she had built the phone for him, complete with untraceable, military level tech, something she doubted she would have been able to do without her.

All the group had left to do was wait until the phone arrived with Lance later that day, being as they couldn't risk delivering the phone to Lance directly, they had to use the post. Felicity practically shivered at that notion, she was a woman of technology, the postal service felt like it belonged in the 1920s.

Felicity had worked until early morning to build the phone with all the necessary encryption, and Oliver had insisted in keeping her company the whole time, so it was almost 4am before the couple finally made it home to catch a few hours of sleep. Of course, Felicity knew that Oliver hardly needed it, she had noticed in the first weeks after his return home that he never slept for more than 5 or 6 hours at a time. She had deduced, but never asked, that it was a survival thing, he couldn't afford the luxury of sleep on the island and so got used to going without.

With Oliver's lack of prolonged sleeping came breakfast. It was another part of the routine that they had recently developed, Oliver was, more often than not, awake before Felicity. Most mornings Felicity would walk into the kitchen of her penthouse to see a restaurant worthy breakfast spread sat on the island. Given the hours her job at QC held, Felicity had tended to skip breakfast and make-do with a coffee to go. Once Oliver had learnt that part of her routine, he had set about doing everything he could in order to change it, hence the spread.

That morning was no exception. Felicity could smell the food the moment she woke up, more distinctly she could smell bacon being fried. Slowly climbing out of bed and grabbing her glasses, Felicity made her way out of her room and to the open-plan kitchen, seeing a shirtless Oliver stood over the cooker. She approached as silently as she could, though knowing that Oliver would, in all likelihood, have already heard her.

_**June 24** _ _**th** _ _**2007** _

" _Good morning, handsome." Felicity grinned, wrapping her arms around Oliver's exposed torso from behind._

_Just over 6 months ago, the couple had finally moved in together and were, somehow, still feeling the 'honeymoon' phase, as all their friends had insisted on calling it. Both Felicity and Oliver still found their new situation blissful, and almost everyone who knew them was amazed that they were yet to fall into the usual bickering of couples who lived together._

_Felicity liked to say that was because her and Oliver were not a usual couple, far from it. The only serious argument they had over their new living situation was when Oliver had elected to buy them a studio apartment that cost more per month than her annual MIT fees. It hadn't taken much for her to convince him to find a new place with her, Felicity had just outright refused to move in with Oliver unless she was paying half the rent, he had given in pretty quickly after that ultimatum._

_Since moving into the new apartment, Oliver had taken to cooking breakfast for the two of them. Much to Felicity's amazement, her boyfriend had actually learnt a thing or two about cooking from Raisa in his years at the Queen Mansion, so he had quickly decided that he would cook for them as often as he could. Breakfast seemed to be his main choice though, as given their differing timetables the couple were not often together for dinner._

_That morning however, Oliver had seemed to have gone all out. There was already a pile of pancakes sat on the dining room table, alongside an assortment of fruit and a stack of toast, and Oliver stood over the cooker frying bacon and eggs. Needless to say, as much as Felicity appreciated the gesture, she was almost certain that there was an ulterior motive behind it, Oliver had either done something that needed forgiving or was about to do something that would need forgiving._

" _Good morning." Oliver replied, his eyes not moving away from the pan before him._

" _What's all this for?" Felicity asked, pressing a few light kisses to the bare skin of Oliver's back._

_Felicity could feel the way his muscles tensed when her lips made contact with his skin, Oliver was clearly doing his best to ignore her. She couldn't blame him of course, he didn't want to overcook any of the food before him, but Felicity really did enjoy testing Oliver's patience. It was something Oliver often prided himself on, his self-control, and Felicity had decided she would prove him wrong as often as she could quite early in their relationship._

_To his credit, Oliver barely responded to her actions, though the smile that was forming on his lips was more than obvious, as were his failing attempts to hide it._

" _Am I not allowed to surprise my girlfriend with a lavish breakfast?" Oliver asked, tipping the now cooked bacon onto a plate._

_Oliver handed the plate with the eggs on to Felicity and the two of them began to walk across to the table._

" _You cook breakfast for me every day," Felicity began, taking a seat at the table. "You only go all-out when you've got motives."_

_Felicity gave Oliver her cockiest grin as he sat opposite her, and the look on his face told her there-and-then that she was right in her suspicions. It was hardly a surprise to her, the last time Oliver had put that much work into making breakfast he had been apologising for buying her a dress with a four-figure price tag, even after Felicity had asked him to stop buying her presents._

" _I've…kinda got bad news." Oliver spoke, avoiding making eye contact with Felicity._

_The brunette watched as her boyfriend gingerly pushed the food on his plate around, clearly uncomfortable with whatever it was he needed to tell her. Part of Felicity's mind immediately went to the worst-case scenario, that Oliver had gotten for too drunk at some frat party and slept with another woman, though the rational part of her mind told her that was a ridiculous notion. On the few occasions that Oliver was unable to convince Felicity to attend a party with, he always made a point of checking in with her every so often and returning home far earlier than he would do when they were in attendance together._

_Felicity knew exactly his motivations in that regard, she was fully aware that there was a part of Oliver that still felt guilty about the incident at the first ever party they attended together, back before they were a couple. With those thoughts to one side, Felicity looked up at Oliver, knowing she would need to push him a little to get him to tell her whatever it was on his mind._

" _Talk to me, Oliver." Felicity spoke softly, reaching out to take his hand across the table._

" _I got a call from my dad this morning," Oliver began, squeezing Felicity's hand lightly. "He wants me to go on this business trip with him in a few weeks."_

" _Oliver, that's not so…"_

" _To China." Oliver cut over her. "On the Queen's Gambit." Oliver paused, his eyes avoiding hers again. "I'll be gone for a month."_

_Damn Robert Queen and his insane obsession with turning his son into a businessman._

_**Present Day** _

"Good morning, handsome." Felicity could feel her smile in her voice as she spoke, wrapping her arms around Oliver's bare chest from behind.

"Morning." Oliver spoke, turning slightly to press a light kiss against Felicity's head. "You're up earlier than usual."

Oliver turned his attention back to the cooker, the faint sizzling of frying bacon filling Felicity's ears once again.

"Guess I'm still a little restless after last night." She answered honestly.

It was the truth, the notion of another archer being out there, possibly with the intentions of framing ' _The Arrow_ ', had Felicity on edge. Partly she thought that was the reason for the lack of sleep, the whole situation had her unnervingly on edge.

"I know how you feel." Oliver replied, offering her a sympathetic smile.

At that, Oliver tipped the bacon onto a plate and motioned for Felicity to take a seat in front of the island. Felicity was more than willing to comply, Oliver's cookery skills had improved over the last 5 years, though how she had no idea. After Oliver had taken a seat next to her, the couple began work on the veritable feast that had been laid out.

Just as Felicity had expected, the food was delicious, even for such simple choices and the duo found themselves eating in a comfortable silence. There was one thought that kept tugging at the back of Felicity's mind as they ate, something she had been unable to let go since Walter had given her Moira's copy of the list.

"QC's Head of Applied Sciences…"

"Is on the list." Oliver cut over her.

It shouldn't have surprised her to know that Oliver had already memorised his father's list, but for some reason it still did.

"I was wondering if…" Felicity trailed off briefly, planning her next words carefully. "If Mr. Miller was going to be getting an arrow in his stocking?"

Oliver froze completely then, placing the glass that was in his hand back down onto the island and turning the face Felicity. The archer eyed her inquisitively for a moment, his thought process practically visible behind his eyes.

"Are you asking me to go after him?" Oliver answered her question with his own.

That shocked Felicity a little, she had expected a straight answer from Oliver, her boyfriend tended to deal in absolutes. The blonde had to fight the urge to laugh when her thoughts turned to Star Wars at that comment, internally scolding herself for getting distracted far too easily.

"Actually no, the opposite really." Felicity began. "I was kinda hoping I could take this one."

At the confused look Oliver threw her, Felicity continued. "The guy is a total ass, Walter's put me on a few projects with him and he refuses to accept any of my input just because I'm a woman, or because I'm blonde, or both!" Pausing to take a breath, Felicity caught the faint smile Oliver was sporting after her rant. "Just let me gather some stuff on him and get it to Walter, I could really do with a win."

Oliver took a moment to take that in, at least that was what Felicity hoped the vacant look on his face meant. Her point had been pretty valid though, there were more than enough names on Oliver's list and he could afford to give her just one, couldn't he? Though Felicity knew it didn't matter, whether or not Oliver gave her his blessing she intended to take whatever dirt she could find on Doug Miller to Walter.

She and Miller regularly got into disagreements about any and all contributions the IT Department made to projects at Applied Sciences, even on the projects that Walter had directly paired them on. The man was an insufferable jerk and Felicity had sworn to herself that she would resolve their issues herself, though until Oliver's list had proven that Miller was corrupt she hadn't had much of a plan.

"Okay." Oliver responded simply, a light smile on his lips. "But dig into it carefully, make sure you use the computers at the Foundry."

Felicity couldn't surpass the almost sadistic smile that came over her lips, she was about to have an incredibly good day.

_XXX_

He was spending far too much time in Big Belly Burger.

That was all Oliver could think about as he looked at his sister across the table. His sister who was, at the moment, tearing into her burger in a way that would have resulted in being grounded for a week if their mother had seen her. Oliver knew all too well the strict behaviours Moira Queen drilled into both him and Thea when they were children, the Queen family needed to keep up appearances. So, he was hardly surprised at the relaxed way Thea was eating knowing she was in safe company.

As Oliver ate another handful of French fries, he internally made a note to add an extra hour to his work out, maybe he'd add another two hours, just to be safe. Despite taking a serious liking to the restaurant, Oliver knew that the regular meals he had there would take its toll on him, he could practically feel the amount of junk entering his well-maintained body as he ate.

Beyond the calories he was taking in Oliver was getting restless. He was still a little on edge waiting for Detective Lance to call him back, he needed to find the other archer and take him down, if only to distract himself from what he knew was sitting in a warehouse in downtown Starling.

"I think there should be a national holiday for the guy that invented French fries. Or at least a statue or something."

The sound of his sister's voice pulled Oliver back into reality from his thoughts. He had told Thea they could spend the afternoon together after a fair amount of insistence on her part, and a gentle nudge from Felicity. Thea was still hoping for some miracle reconnection with him, Oliver could almost sense it when they spent time together. As much as he knew she was trying, Thea was having trouble accepting the new him, a part of her, a small part he hoped, was waiting in vain for him to suddenly rebecome the man he was five years ago.

Oliver couldn't blame her for it, if anything it endeared his sister to him all the more. It was hard for her to accept the change, just as Oliver himself struggled to accept the person Thea had become. In his head, she was still that adorable 12-year-old she had been when he left, the girl who was obsessed with horse-riding and chasing him around all day.

"Would it be cool if we hit the mall when we're done?" Thea began. "I need to grab a dress for the Christmas Party."

Oliver nodded immediately, knowing it was best not to turn down Thea when she wanted to shop. After a brief moment, Oliver caught onto what his sister had just said.

"What Christmas par…"

"Hi, Thea." A voice cut over him.

"Hi, Shane." Thea smiled, gesturing at Oliver with a French fry in her hand she added. "This is my brother, Oliver."

"Nice to meet you, Thea's brother." Shane remarked, a smug look on his face.

Oliver had barely known the man 2 minutes and he already disliked him. A small part of him saw Shane in a similar light to how his younger self had been, long before he met Felicity, and that made his distaste even greater.

"I bet the food on that island is better than the stuff they're serve here." Shane added.

"You'd lose that bet." Oliver responded, giving the other man his best disapproving older brother look.

Seemingly ignoring Oliver, or perhaps being oblivious to his comment, Shane turned his attention to Thea. "We're heading own to the bay to hang out if you want to come."

Shane had asked that question as if Oliver hadn't even been in the room, the kid was either that arrogant he was sure Thea would say yes, or so obnoxious that he didn't care either way.

"Thanks," Thea began, motioning to Oliver. "But I'm spending the afternoon with my brother."

Shane didn't seem to be fazed by her answer, making Oliver sure that his second observation had been the correct one. The kid simply offered a short shrug and "another time", before turning on his heel and walking out of Big Belly Burger. Oliver watched the kid leave, ensuring that Shane had definitely left before he turned back to Thea.

"How do you know that Shane guy?" Oliver questioned, maintaining his disapproving look as best he could.

"We rob banks and smoke crack together."

"That's funny, yeah." Oliver didn't attempt to hide his distaste for Thea's mocking. "I have a feeling I'm not gonna be a fan."

"You don't even know him." Thea huffed in annoyance.

She had a point, Oliver had only just med the kid and had barely gotten more than a vague impression of him, but being a good judge of character had become central to Oliver's new lifestyle. On top of everything else that the last 5 years had taught him, Oliver considered himself to have become quite skilled at reading people, it had been one of the easiest things for him to pick up.

Shane was even easier for him to read. The kid didn't even try to hide his intentions with Thea, it was all right there. The nonchalant attitude, the body language, even the way he looked at her, that last one made Oliver' skin crawl. It helped that Shane wasn't that different from the way Oliver had been at that age, by the time he turned 19 Oliver had already slept with the vast majority of the female population from Starling Academy, which was why it was so easy for him to know Shane's intentions.

"Let's just change the subject." Thea spoke again.

"Fine." Oliver began. "You were saying something about the Christmas party?"

The Queen family Christmas party was one of Oliver's fondest memories from before the island. His father had held the event every year for as long as Oliver could remember, and he had been in attendance at every party since he was 8-years-old. Though Oliver distinctly remembered the parties getting more fun when he turned 17 and his parents allowed him to make proper use of the open bar the party provided. His most distinct memory of those parties had been the last one he ever went to, and also first one he attended with Felicity on his arm.

_**December 20** _ _**th** _ _**2006** _

_She looked beautiful._

_That was the only thought the kept running through Oliver's head. The Queen family Christmas gala had always been one of Oliver's favourite things growing up, particularly when he reached his teenage years, and the moment December had rolled around that year he had struggled to think of anything but whether or not Felicity would enjoy it too. Oliver did have his reservations early on, he was fully aware of Felicity's Jewish heritage but they hadn't so much as broached the topic of how the couple would celebrate during the Christmas period._

_Felicity, of course, had said 'yes' the moment Oliver extended to offer for her to spend the holiday season at the Queen household. They had managed been in Starling City a little over a week, which had worked well for Oliver's plans, when the couple had celebrated their 11-month anniversary 5 days prior to the party. In her usual fashion, Felicity insisted that Oliver not buy her any outlandish presents for that occasion, citing the fast approaching Christmas Day, and that their one-year anniversary was in a month as her motives. Much to his girlfriend's surprise, Oliver had actually obeyed that instruction, but only because of the present he had already prepared her for Christmas._

_The voice of the bartender brought Oliver back into reality. He had, somehow, managed to separate himself from Felicity to get them both something alcoholic, which they would undoubtedly need when Oliver's father started to introduced them to the various QC board-members and investors who were in attendance. Despite it being an open bar, Oliver kept his order simple, two glasses of the most expensive champagne they had. Being a Queen meant keeping up appearances, even at a party._

_Filled champagne flutes in hand, Oliver turned and made his way back across the dance floor. His eyes quickly found Felicity again, once again drinking in her appearance. The bright red of her dress stood out in the seas of blacks and greys, despite it being Christmas the party was still a reasonably formal event. Yet it wasn't just the colour that stood out, the dress was knee length and with a deep neckline, showing just enough skin to drive Oliver mad, which had been Felicity main motivation for choosing that dress._

_When the brunette had 'demoed' the dress for him not an hour earlier, Oliver had to fight the urge to physically tear it from her body. He had quickly commented on the sinfully good way it fitted her form, and despite Oliver's best flattery and advances Felicity had remained insistent that they couldn't be late for the party. That hadn't helped the way Oliver felt, if anything it had made him want her all the more._

_Shaking himself out of those thoughts, Oliver closed the rest of the distance between himself and Felicity, holding out the glass to her when he did._

" _For the lady." Oliver smiled at her, throwing out his best impression of a 'gentleman' from those cheesy old movies his parents loved to watch._

" _Thank you, Mr. Queen." Felicity kept up the pretence with a broad smile, taking the glass from him._

" _Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?" Oliver whispered into her ear, leaning in close to be sure no one else would hear._

" _More than once." Felicity smiled, a light blush forming on her cheeks._

" _Just making sure."_

_A comfortable silence fell between the two in that moment, and Oliver took the time to run his eyes over her appearance again. As he did, Oliver slowly and meticulously visualised all the ways in which, as soon as they were alone, he would both reward and punish Felicity for wearing that dress._

" _Oliver." A voice pulled him from his thoughts._

_Looking up, Oliver saw his father, with Oliver's mother on his arm, making his way across the room towards him and Felicity. Offering them both a wide smile, Oliver waited for the couple to approach._

" _Would you mind if I borrow Felicity, son?" Robert began, though Oliver knew he couldn't say no. "QC's new Head of IT just arrived and I think it'd be great for Felicity to meet him."_

" _Dad." Oliver spoke scolding._

_Practically from the moment he met her, Robert Queen had been attempting to recruit Felicity to Queen Consolidated. At every available opportunity he had offered her jobs, introduced her to all the right people, given her tours of QC's facilities that many people would kill to get. Felicity had insisted that she was okay with it, that she was seriously flattered by 'The Robert Queen' taking such an interest in her._

" _It's alright, Oliver," Felicity spoke. "I don't mind."_

_Before Oliver even had a chance to answer, his father had disappeared into the crowd with Felicity in tow. He could still just about see where they were, Felicity's dress really did set her apart from the crowd in more ways than one._

" _That girl is far too good to you, Oliver." His mother spoke, as much as she and Robert were a united front at these events, she tended to leave the business side of things to her husband._

" _I know, mom." Oliver replied, hardly noticing the small jab his mother had made, her statement was far too true._

" _Truly, Oliver, I don't think there are many things you could do she wouldn't forgive." Moira continued. "Never let her go."_

_**Present Day** _

Oliver's fond memories of those parties had been shattered by Tommy, just a few days ago. It hadn't been Tommy's fault, he hadn't done anything intentionally malicious. The duo had been working on some plans for the club when Oliver had casually asked if Tommy would be in attendance at the Queen Christmas party, and then the Merlyn heir had been forced to explain to Oliver that there hadn't been a party since the  _Gambit_ went down.

The idea had come to Oliver more than a few times to organise the party himself, but that had been something he wanted to talk through with Felicity before he took it any further than just being an idea. Thea's inadvertent revelation that there was going to be a Christmas party in a few days' time had been something of a shock as a result.

Leaning back in her chair, Thea met Oliver's eyes with suspicion. "She didn't tell you?"

"Who didn't tell me what?" Oliver was being to get even more confused.

"Shit." Thea's expression turned to disappointment. "If she hasn't told you I guess the party was meant to be a surprise. Shit."

"Thea, language." Oliver scolded, to which his sister responded by sticking her tongue out at him. "So, we're having a party this year?"

"It was Felicity's idea." Thea sighed, clearly still disappointed about giving up the surprise. "We all went so long without Christmas and you did too, she just wanted to try and make your first Christmas back just like you remembered."

Oliver felt an actual warmth in his heart at that revelation. Felicity had said nothing of the sort to him, so Oliver assumed that she wanted to keep the party low-key until as late as possible, either that or she didn't want Oliver to realise the awkwardness that surrounded Christmas in the Queen household.

"Just, please don't tell her I told you." Thea pleaded. "Felicity's put so much work into this and I want it to be awesome for her."

His girlfriend really was remarkable.

_XXX_

She'd nearly blown up her boyfriend, this was turning out to be one weird Christmas.

Felicity couldn't silence the guilt that kept pushing over her after the incident with the other archer's arrow. She had done what Oliver had needed, she tracked the arrow gifted to them by Detective Lance and ' _The Arrow'_  (even if felicity was the only one calling him that) had gone to investigate. Then nearly got blown up.

Being a vigilante was stressful work.

As much as Oliver had insisted he was fine, Felicity was struggling to get the image on him waking back into the Foundry, covered in soot and ash with burn marks over his suit, out of her head. It had been a pretty horrifying reminder of how serious the work they were doing was, of how much Oliver was risking every time he suited up and hit the streets.

It hadn't taken anywhere near as much persuasion as she'd expected after that to get Oliver to change into his regular suit, her boyfriend had seemed surprisingly content with her excuse of there being a dinner party at Queen mansion. Felicity was quite happy with the idea that she was getting better at the whole ' _art of deception_ ' thing.

Which brought her up to that moment, with Diggle pulling the car up in front of the entrance to Queen Mansion. Felicity made a move to get out of the car, wanting to get inside and see Oliver's reaction, but was stopped when she felt a hand on the exposed skin of her arm. Turning back to face Oliver, Felicity saw him reaching into the jacket of his Armani suit, a nervous look on his face.

"Oliver, what going on?"

As his answer to her question, Oliver pulled a long, velvet box from his jacket, cautiously handing it over to her. Felicity took the item in her own hands, part of her already having a vague idea of what it was.

"I know it's not Christmas yet, but I saw this when I went shopping with Thea and…well you know the rest." Oliver spoke.

Softly biting her lips, Felicity opened the box, audibly gasping when she caught side of its contents. The box contained a necklace, one that was insanely beautiful and, undoubtedly, equally expensive. On her first look, Felicity thought it might be silver but knowing Oliver Queen, and his inability to buy anything at a reasonable price, it was platinum. The string of jewels encrusted in it were emeralds, the hidden meaning brining a smile to her face.

"Oliver…" Her voice was a whisper. "It's gorgeous."

Felicity remained frozen, simply admiring the jewellery in her hands. After a few beats of silence, she saw Oliver shift a little closer to her.

"Could I..?" Oliver indicated at the necklace.

"Of course." The blonde didn't hesitate in her answer, handing the box to Oliver before she turned.

With her back to Oliver, Felicity reached up and lifted her hair, allowing Oliver to drape the necklace around her. The feeling of his hands slightly scraping again the skin of her neck sent sparks through Felicity, all her senses feeling a little more heightened at Oliver's touch. The soft clicking of the latch told Felicity he was done, and she dropped her hair, letting it fall around her shoulders again.

Turning back to Oliver, Felicity met his eyes. "How do I look?"

"Beautiful." Was all the reply she got before Oliver pressed his lips to hers.

Felicity hardly had anytime to appreciate the intensity of the kiss before they were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. Pulling away from each other, the couple turned to see John Diggle giving them an amused glare via the rear-view mirror.

Stifling a giggle, Felicity gave Diggle a quick apology before climbing out of the car.

_XXX_

His girlfriend had really gone all out with the party, Queen Mansion looked almost exactly the same as Oliver had remember during Christmas. It was an impressive feat, even if Oliver had been fully expecting it. Turing his head, Oliver met Felicity's eyes, a broad smile on her face. It almost made Oliver laugh, the way Felicity managed to look like a kid in a candy store and the mature adult who almost managed to plan this whole party under his nose, at the same time.

"Felicity, this is incredible. How'd you manage all this?"

At his question, Felicity began to laugh. Oliver was having a really weird day.

"Thea told you, didn't she?" Felicity smiled, seemingly more amused than angry at the youngest Queen's actions.

Clearly, Oliver hadn't been anywhere near as convincing in his mock-surprise as he had thought, but he knew that Felicity tended to see right through him whenever he lied to her.

"Not on purpose, she didn't know it was supposed to be a surprise party."

"Well it wasn't." Felicity replied. Oliver's shock must have been obvious because she continued. "I thought you have figured this out a few days back. Being as you hadn't said anything I figured I'd been able to plan it without you knowing. The party became a surprise thing like yesterday."

Oliver shook his head in marvel, Felicity was truly remarkable, a fact he didn't comment on often enough.

"Felicity Smoak, you are remarkable."

"Thank you for remarking on it."

The sound of the manor's door clicking shut caused Oliver to turn on his heel, revealing a teenage boy with a cheap bunch of flowers in one hand. It was a little hard for Oliver to believe that Shane had turned up, the audacity of that kid was something else.

"Hey man, Thea invited me, I hope that's cool."

If the kid had any sense at all, he would have turned and left that moment, with Oliver giving him his best angry glare, he had moved on from disapproving. With a heavy sigh, Oliver turned his attention to the bunch of flowers the kid had in one hand, the first of his gestures on which Shane actually seemed to pick up.

"These are for your mom."

Oliver resisted the urge to openly mock Shane for that, only biting his tongue because he knew he would get some serious backlash for it from Felicity. Oliver had told her about his meeting with Shane after he had returned to the penthouse after going shopping with Thea, to which Felicity had given him the whole 'Thea's an adult now' speech. As far as Oliver was concerned, there was still just over a month until his sister turned 18, and she wouldn't be an adult a moment before.

"Smooth." Oliver commented to Felicity, before the two of them turned and headed into the main room.

The decorations in the main room were even more extravagant than the ones in the hall, which brought a fresh smile to Oliver's lips.

"Oliver, Felicity." It had been Walter who spotted the couple.

"You guys look great," Oliver began as he and Felicity approached the rest of the Queen-Steele family. "Merry Christmas."

A chorus of 'Merry Christmas' came in reply, and Oliver marvelled at how much his family seemed to be enjoying the party so far. He has expected things to be a little more awkward between them, give nit had been so long since they had all celebrated the holiday.

"Let's get a holiday photo." Felicity suggested.

"I already sent out our Christmas cards." His mother answered, a little too quickly.

"Then let's get one just for us." Oliver insisted, as much to spite his mother as he did for Felicity's sake.

"Of course."

With the consent of the Queen matriarch, the quintet quickly came together, all smiling brightly at the camera before them. After a few flashes of the camera, the photographer nodded at the family and headed into the crowds to get more photos. Before Oliver was granted the chance to ask his family what was next for the night, Shane's voice hit his ears.

"Mrs. Queen, these are for you."

With a well disguised look of confusion, Moira took the flowers with some vague comment about putting them in water. Hardly a moment later, Thea had disappeared with Shane and Oliver's mother was walking way with a bitter expression after exchanging a few words with Walter.

A little puzzled by the interaction, Oliver approached his step-father. "Everything okay between the two of you?"

"I'm sure it'll work itself out." Came Walter's dismissive answer, the older man not waiting before heading off to, presumably, find Moira.

"Well, that was weird." Felicity commented from Oliver's side.

Choosing not to comment, Oliver simply offered a nod of agreement, knowing not to begin to speculate on the situation with his mother and Walter. The idea had already crossed Oliver's mind that if Walter had discovered the wreck of the  _Queen's Gambit_  in the same warehouse he and Felicity had done, and not said anything about it, then there was a chance that he might be involved in whatever it was that was going on.

Thankfully, Felicity provided him a distraction, pointing out that Tommy and Laurel had just arrived. Quickly crossing the room, the two couples greeted each other with bright smiles. Before any of them could actually spark a conversation, Laurel took Felicity's arm.

"Need to borrow Lissy for some girl talk." Laurel grinned, swiftly dragging the blonde across the room with her.

"You know," Tommy began, putting an arm on Oliver's shoulder. "I'm not sure which of us that conversation is going to be about."

"Or which of us is going to come out worse after it." Oliver retorted.

He could always find some normality with Tommy, the two best friends could easily fall into a casual conversation. Tommy helped Oliver keep grounded, especially now Felicity was involved in his other life.

"Is your sister around? I haven't had a chance to say hey."

At Tommy's comment, Oliver began to scan the room, seeing no sign of his sister…or Shane. Taking a quick moment to calm himself, Oliver turned to Tommy.

"Lemme check, she's probably just in her room."

As Oliver headed to the stairs, he noticed that Diggle was now inside, positioned at the door, keeping a watchful eye on the crowds. With a curt nod to his bodyguard, Oliver took the stairs two at a time, quickly reaching the door that lead to Thea's room. Knocking on the wooden door quickly, Oliver pushed into the room.

"Thea, Tommy and Laurel are downstairs they wanna say…"

Oliver froze, getting hit with the disturbing sight of Shane sat on his sister's bed, his shirt half off, with Thea stood above him. It hardly took a genius to work out, and Oliver was already seeing red. It almost pained him that he couldn't come up with a convincing reason for the Hood to pay this kid a visit.

"Hit the road."

Shane more than willingly obeyed that instruction, clearly being able to see the anger behind Oliver's eyes. It was almost impressive, seeing the kid move so quickly out of the room.

"What are you doing?" Thea questioned in an ironically accusatory tone,

"Funny," Oliver remarked dryly. "I was about to ask you the same thing. Because there is a party going on downstairs that Felicity threw…"

"For you." Thea cut over him angrily. "That's what this whole thing is about. Oliver's back so let's all pretend like nothing's changed. But no matter how fancy the party is, things will never be the way they used to be in our family. Ever again."

It was the truth, that made it a little hard for Oliver to disagree with his sister. Felicity had more or less admitted that the whole reason they were throwing the party was so that Oliver wouldn't feel any more out of place than he already did. Maybe Oliver had been wrong. All those months ago, when he returned to Starling as more than just 'The Hood', he had told himself that he could reconnect with his family, that he could find a way to be the person they needed. After everything that had happened, everything he had learnt, Oliver was really beginning to doubt that decision.

"Oliver." Diggle's voice came from behind him.

Glad for an out of his conversation with Thea, Oliver turned to face the ex-soldier.

"What is it?"

Diggle simply motioned for Oliver to follow him, leading him into one of the lounge rooms, where Felicity was stood before a TV.

"The other archer's moved to the next level. He's taken hostages." Diggle explained.

Felicity indicated to the TV, where Oliver saw the image of a woman, tears staining her cheeks and shaking. "Happy holidays, Starling City. For the past three months, this city has been laid siege by a vigilante. But the police have been unable to bring him to justice because they lack the will to do what justice demands. I will kill one hostage... every hour in the name of this vigilante until he surrenders himself to my authority."

The anger Oliver had felt on seeing Shane with his sister didn't rival what he was feeling now. Those hostages were there because of him. Plenty had gone wrong with his night so far, but there was no way Oliver was going to let even one of those hostages die, not on his watch.

As soon as he turned to move for the door, Diggle spoke up. "Police are on the scene, Oliver. I think you should let them handle this."

Diggle must have known that wasn't an option, that he would even consider sitting this out was a near laughable notion. Turning to Felicity, Oliver gave her a look, silently asking for some back-up.

"Oliver, this guy…" Felicity trailed off, giving him a pleading look. "This guy, he's dangerous. He's calling you out."

It shocked him a little that Felicity was standing with Diggle on this one, but Oliver was, on some level, glad that she cared so much for him.

"There wasn't anything on the island that wasn't twice as dangerous as this pretender." Oliver began, making a move for the door. He stopped in the door way, turning to Felicity.

"Don't worry," He spoke, looking her dead in the eye, offering a wink, Oliver turned and kept walking. "I got this."

_XXX_

_Felicity, help._

She kept replaying that over and over in her head as Diggle sped the car to the Glades. They had broken every speed restriction so far but neither of them cared, Oliver was in danger and they needed to help him. Felicity had kept her cell phone in her hands the whole journey, praying that Oliver would call her again.

She could honestly admit that she had never been more afraid in her life.

It had been nearly 10 minutes since Oliver's call when Diggle finally pulled the car to a stop, right in front of the alley that her tracker had told them Oliver was in. Without hesitation, Felicity jumped from the car and ran down the alley, ignoring Diggle's shout of warning. Neither of them seemed to consider the looming police presence, they knew there was no time to waste, they had to find Oliver.

Then, she heard Diggle's call. Spinning around, she saw Oliver, lying unmoving on the floor with Diggle crouched over him.

"Oliver?" Felicity called his name, quickly moving to his side. With no response, Felicity turned her attention to Diggle. "Is he?" She couldn't finish that question.

"No, he's alive, just." Diggle replied, already moving to lift Oliver up. "But we need to get out of here, now."

Relief flooded through her, she knew how tough Oliver was, if he was alive he would pull through, they just needed to get him to a hospital.

_XXX_

The motorcycle excuse had been terrible. Both Felicity and Diggle were fully aware of that, but it had been the only reasonable thing they could come up with to justify the level of damage that had been done to Oliver's body. It hadn't been 10 minutes after they had delivered Oliver to the hospital, following their quick change of him into the spare Armani they kept in the car, and a nurse had informed them that there was nothing life-threatening about his injuries.

Despite that being the best news of her night, it had pushed Felicity over the edge, and she had all-but collapsed into Diggle's arms after the nurse left them. It hadn't taken long before Diggle and herself were cleared to go into Oliver's room, he didn't need any major medical attention.

While they had waited, Felicity had been the one to call the rest of the Queen family, which had been a pretty traumatic experience in itself. Moira had thought Oliver and Felicity had bailed on the party for…improper reasons, so it had been even harder to tell the Queen matriarch the truth, or at least the doctored version of the truth.

Before the rest of the family could arrive, Oliver came to, jerking awake violently.

"Hey, it's okay, you're okay." Felicity spoke quickly, rushing to Oliver's side.

"What happened?" Oliver managed, his voice hoarse.

"Me and Digg found you," Felicity began, tears forming in her eyes. "Cleaned you up and brought you here. You've…you've got a…"

Felicity couldn't manage to finish the sentence, her tears taking over. Instead, she simply threw her arms around Oliver, careful to avoid his broken ribs, and sobbed into his shoulder. With a grunt, Oliver returned the embrace, somehow managing to make Felicity fell safe, even after everything.

"Don't you ever do that to me again, you selfish bastard." Felicity sobbed.

While she continued to embrace Oliver, she heard Diggle speak, listing out the series of injuries her boyfriend had received.

Suddenly, the door was opened, the sound seeming far louder to Felicity than it actually was. the blonde practically jumped out of Oliver's arms to see his family entering the room, each of them wearing the same horrified expression, the same one Felicity didn't doubt that she was wearing too.

"Are you alright?" Moira was the first to speak as the trio approached the bed.

"Oh god, you look terrible." Thea spoke before Oliver could answer.

"Well, thank god you were wearing your helmet." Walter added.

Realising that Oliver wouldn't know the story his family had been told, Felicity quickly turned her attention back to her boyfriend. "I told them how you were out on your bike and a semi pulled out in front of you."

"What were you even doing out?" Moira questioned.

"You bailed on your own party." Thea added.

Felicity couldn't help but feel a little bad for Oliver, his family were hardly even giving him time to answer any of their questions.

"It felt like the right move, like you said, it wasn't the best thing for us." Oliver directed that last part at his sister.

"Okay, but when I said that, that was me being a bitch." Thea began, motioning at Felicity, she continued. "Felicity just wanted you to feel at home, we all know how much you used to love Christmas."

"The truth is," Moira began. "I don't think any of us were at our best."

"The real truth is," Walter added. "Felicity threw that party to help bring us closer together. Well, here we are."

Felicity had to admit that Walter had a point. She'd thrown the party in order to help Oliver fell more at home, to try to help him reconnect with the rest of his family. In some weird, twisted way, she had actually succeeded.


	15. Chapter 15

 

"And where do you think you're going?"

Oliver couldn't stop the all-too loud groan that escaped his lips at the sound of Felicity's voice. Ever since the night of the Christmas party, Oliver had been on doctor-prescribed bed-rest, much to his chagrin. After everything that happened the archer couldn't think of anything worse than being stuck in bed. Thankfully, he had been allowed to leave the hospital after only two nights, feeling the need to get back to his usual work-out routine the moment he crossed into the street.

Felicity, it seemed, had different ideas.

The blonde had insisted that Oliver actually adhere to the  _recommended_ two weeks' bed-rest, and Diggle had actually taken her side. Despite Oliver trying to argue the point that the bed-rest was merely a recommendation, not an actual order, his two partners in crime had given him no choice in the matter. Oliver knew full well that Felicity was simply concerned for him, but her borderline mothering was proving to be a pain. It had been three days since Oliver had been confined to his and Felicity's penthouse, and he had been going completely mad.

Following his house-arrest, Oliver had been forced to fight Felicity for him to even be able to cook for them. The couple had manged to get into a few 'loud disagreements', as Felicity had dubbed them, over the exact definition of bed-rest. After the first night back at the penthouse, Felicity had relented and allowed Oliver to cook for them, the blonde had far from improved her own cooking talents over the last five years.

While Oliver himself hadn't had much culinary knowledge to begin with, save the few basic dishes Raisa had insisted on teaching him how to make before he left for Harvard, he had manged to find small fragments of free time to hone that skill since his return. He had spent some of the last two days in the kitchen of the penthouse, putting together every recipe he could from the selection of Felicity's unused cookbooks.

Walter had insisted that the blonde take a few days from work to keep an eye on Oliver, so she had been his more than willing Guinea pig in his endeavours. As it happened, Oliver had something of a knack for cooking, though that new-found talent didn't distract him for anywhere near as long as he hoped. Oliver could practically feel the muscle loss already, if he didn't get back to some semblance of a workout routine in the next few days he would have a problem.

The morning of his fourth day at the penthouse, Oliver had decided that he couldn't keep up with being confined any longer. As always, he had woken before Felicity, and quickly made the decision to sneak off to the Foundry before his girlfriend could protest. After writing a brief apology/explanation note and planting it on his pillow, Oliver had made his move.

To his credit, Oliver had made it to the door to the elevator before he had been caught. He had heard Felicity approaching before she spoke, the blonde was far from quiet, but a part of him had hoped that she would allow him to leave without an argument.

Clearly, he had hoped in vain.

"Oliver?" Felicity spoke through his silence. "Were you planning on telling me you were leaving?"

_**May 15** _ _**th,** _ _**2006** _

" _Were you planning on telling me you were leaving?"_

_Oliver turned on his heel, one hand still wrapped around the door handle, and came face-to-face with Felicity. It always astonished Oliver that the brunette managed to look flawless without effort. Case-in-point, she stood before him with wild bed-hair, wrapped in a bedsheet, and wearing the most adorable pout he had ever seen._

_The previous night had been one of the very rare occasions that Oliver had stayed the night in Felicity's dorm room. For reasons that he was yet to learn, Felicity's roommate was far from a fan of her allowing Oliver to stay the night, so, when Felicity told him her roommate was away for the weekend, Oliver had jumped at the chance. He had spent the last three nights with Felicity, though as the afternoon sun had hit his eyes, Oliver had known he needed to make a quick exit._

_Oliver had received a last-minute invite to an impromptu party the night before, and Felicity had begrudgingly agreed to go with him. The brunette had got her revenge on Oliver surprising quickly though, electing to wear a sinfully formfitting, knee-length black dress, and spurning every last one of Oliver's attempts at seduction._

_The night had also led to an interesting revelation for Oliver, that Felicity had a particular weakness for tequila, one which had led to several rounds of body-shots, and that had damn near been the death of him. Despite Oliver's teasing that Felicity was a Vegas-girl and should, by nature, be able to handle her drink a little better, she had seriously shown him up that night. Needless to say, the couple had been the life-and-soul of the party, and had been amongst the last to leave._

_Knowing that Felicity's roommate was going to be returning at some point in the day, Oliver had decided that he would be up early to avoid that confrontation. Naturally, that plan had gone to hell pretty quickly, as him nor Felicity had awoken in a time that ended in AM. Oliver had managed to wake a little after midday, and had quickly made a move to leave. After scribbling an apology note and leaving it on Felicity's bed, he had headed to the door, only to be confronted by the brunette._

" _Felicity," Oliver began, quickly closing the distance between them. "Your roommate is going to be back any minute, if she catches me here…"_

" _I'll deal with it." Felicity cut over him. "Who said you were allowed to leave early?"_

_Oliver had to fight the urge to roll his eyes at his girlfriend, Felicity never handled her hangovers particularly well. More often than not the couple would spend a full day after a night out just sitting in Oliver's bed, watching sci-fi shows and eating pint after pint of mint chip. Not once had they done that in Felicity's room, especially with the threat of her roommate looming over them. Oliver was more than confident in the knowledge that Felicity would be the death of him._

" _We can get some mint chip on the way to mine," Oliver started, leaning down to press a quick kiss to Felicity's lips. "Just go get dressed."_

_Giving him a look Oliver couldn't quite place, Felicity pushed herself up onto her tip toes and landing a deep, lingering kiss against his lips. A little surprised by her actions, Oliver spent a moment in shock before returning the kiss, losing himself a little in the taste of Felicity's lips. After a moment, Felicity pulled away, and Oliver eyes were quickly drawn to the sight of Felicity slowly running her tongue along her lips, leaving them with a slight sheen. It took Oliver a few seconds to focus his eyes back on Felicity's own._

" _It's not that kinda hangover." Were Felicity's whispered words._

_Before Oliver was given the chance to ask what she meant, Felicity allowed the bed-sheet that had been covering her body to slip from her shoulders, the fabric pooling around her feet. Oliver couldn't help the way his eyes hungrily ran over her, drinking in the sight of Felicity's exposed body and the delightfully sultry grin she wore. That was nothing if not new, Oliver could hardly think of a time where Felicity had done something quite so bold without a little Dutch-courage, and it was incredibly arousing._

_Yep, she was going to be the death of him._

_**Present Day** _

Slowly turning, Oliver braced himself for the inevitable. Felicity had been more than clear in her statement that he was to stick out the two weeks' bed rest, and yet here he was, attempting to sneak away from the penthouse before she woke.

The sight Oliver was confronted with was far from what he had expected. Felicity looked more disappointed than angry, a resigned look across her features. That pulled at Oliver's conscience, Felicity must have honestly believed that Oliver would manage to stay idle for two whole weeks. Two weeks where he couldn't work, couldn't train, couldn't try to find the other archer. Despite himself, in that moment a part of him actually wanted to adhere to those two weeks of bedrest, if only to spend them with Felicity.

The last three days had given them a taste of domestic life, of what they could be if it wasn't for the mission, and Oliver had liked it. In those moments when he had been with Felicity, when they had been sprawled out on her couch watching TV, when she would sit at the island and try to distract him while he cooked, when they sat together and laughed while they ate food. It was normal, maybe they could be normal.

It was a thought Oliver had always had in the back of his mind since his return, that maybe there could be an end to the mission, that Felicity could be that end. Though, if the last five years had taught him anything, it was that hope was a dangerous thing.

"Felicity, I…"

"Oliver, we talked about this." Felicity cut over him. "You're suborn as hell but you're not indestructible."

She was right, Felicity always was, and Oliver knew it. He hardly wanted to put the hood back on yet but he still needed to start training again, though even that could be a risk. A part of him wanted to just tell her that he would take it easy, that he wouldn't push it too far, and yet Oliver knew that would be a lie. The moment he returned to the Foundry he would go straight back to his old regimen, and that could be a problem.

"I can't just sit here anymore, Felicity." Oliver began, closing the gap between them in one long stride and taking her hands in his own. "I did my best, but that's not who I am."

_XXX_

Felicity hated Oliver Queen.

Well, that wasn't completely true. She loved him to the ends of the Earth, she was entirely enamoured by him but, regardless of it all, he was a colossal pain. After she had confronted him attempting to sneak out of the penthouse, they two had come to an agreement, Oliver would put up with the full two weeks of bed rest.

Agreed might not have been the right word for it. Felicity had used her loud voice and Oliver had stopped arguing. She was quite proud of that achievement, that she; timid, geeky Felicity Smoak, was able to scare the infamous 'Hood'.

It had only taken Oliver four more days to convince her to let him head back to the Foundry.

Oliver gave her that adorable smile and his best puppy-dog eyes and she hadn't been able to fight him anymore. In fairness, she did manage to lay down a few ground rules, mostly that Oliver had to have either her or Diggle in his company at all times, just in case he decided to do something stupid. Which Felicity was certain he would.

She understood his need to be kept busy, despite the near domestic bliss they had experienced in the past week. Oliver had ensured her that he would only be doing the bare minimum at the Foundry, just enough to start regaining the muscle mass that he had lost since the Christmas Party.

Regardless, it was still hard for Felicity to let him do even that. The incident during the Christmas party had shaken her, Oliver had gone toe-to-toe with the other archer and lost, badly. From what he had told her he had only just escaped with his life, and Felicity was certain that Oliver was sugar-coating that story.

Along with Oliver's defeat had come the knowledge that the group had been right in thinking that 'the list' hadn't been complied by Robert Queen. Apparently, the other archer had told 'The Hood' that the man who authored the list wanted him dead, and that was a horrifying thought. There was someone out there who knew that 'The Hood' was targeting people on the list, and that person was dangerous.

That had been the last straw for Felicity. The moment Oliver had been released from hospital, Felicity had dedicated every moment she could find to looking further into the list, into the people on it, into Robert and Moira Queen. She hadn't' told Oliver about her research, everything she had done had been when her boyfriend was otherwise occupied. Felicity knew full well that Oliver needed to be focused on getting better, he couldn't do that if he was distracted by what she found.

What she'd found was currently nothing.

Every lead Felicity had followed had been a dead end. She had checked every single avenue she could think of; records from the docks where the  _Queen's Gambit_ had been moored, into where the notebooks containing the list were purchased, into what connected the names (apart from them all being criminals), Felicity had even dug into every aspect of Robert and Moira's lives she could. Still there was nothing.

The current, and final, idea Felicity was considering was the image that she had found when she had been looking into Tempest for Walter. It hadn't taken long for her to realise that the image had a twin, it appeared on the inside cover of the notebook, both were entirely identical. Though that still didn't gain her any ground, if anything it had taken her back a step.

It had taken Felicity a while to make the connection but if she was right, and she usually was, it wasn't just an image, it was a logo. A logo meant something more, it meant that whatever the list was a part of, it was big.

"Felicity?"

The blonde jumped out of her chair with lightning speed when she heard her name called, Felicity had been so engrossed in her thoughts that she had completely forgotten Oliver's presence.

"Oliver!" Felicity shouted, wheeling around to face her boyfriend. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

The couple had spent the day in the Foundry together, despite Felicity insisting that there were better ways for them to spend a Saturday. With two days until Christmas, Felicity had planned to get into Starling and do some last-minute Christmas shopping, wanting to ensure that she kept involved in the Queen Family's revitalised Christmas celebrations.

Oliver, of course, had chosen to ignore her suggestion and the two had been in the Foundry since breakfast, only taking their leave for a lunch a Big Belly Burger. Diggle had offered to keep an eye on the archer while Felicity finished her shopping, though the blonde had refused, not wanting the bodyguard to miss out on spending a day with his nephew.

"Felicity, I hardly snuck up on you." Oliver began with a smile, walking across to where she was stood. "What's got you so zoned out?"

With a sigh, Felicity pushed her chair up against the desk and stepped around it, closing the rest of the distance between her and Oliver. She could hardly tell Oliver about her suspicions with the insignia she'd found, at least not until she managed to collect something more substantial.

"Nothing." At the look Oliver was giving her Felicity added. "Not nothing as in 'there's nothing wrong', nothing as in I've found nothing. Even after everything we've manged to find we still have no idea what's going on."

_Except that Moira is involved._

That went unsaid, but the look the couple shared seemed to say it. Felicity hadn't been silent in her opinions on Oliver's avoidance of questioning his mother about her copy of the list, and they had suffered through a number of debates because of it. His motivations for wanting to avoid that conflict were more than understandable, Felicity was sure that she would react the same in his position, but that didn't mean that there wasn't an issue.

As much as she was yet to tell Oliver, Felicity planned on using the Queen Family Christmas dinner to push a confrontation with Moira. Felicity was more than sure that Oliver wouldn't take much more persuasion to talk to his mother, or at the least Walter, about the notebook.

That was another issue she and Oliver had come a disagreement on. Both him and Diggle had considered the notion that Walter had some level of involvement in the conspiracy around the  _Queen's Gambit_ and the list (which needed a shorter name for future reference in Felicity's opinion, but that was a separate discussion). Felicity had immediately jumped to her mentor's defence, knowing that there was no chance he was connected in anymore level than the three of them.

That had been something else that Felicity had been unable to prove, hence her need for Oliver to try something on his side. As much as it pained her, Felicity knew that her computers would be no further help.

"You look adorable when you're stumped."

The blush that came over Felicity's cheeks practically made her forget what she had been thinking about. She equally loved and hated the way Oliver could always distract her like that.

_**October 14** _ _**th,** _ _**2005** _

" _You look so adorable when you're stumped."_

" _Shut up, Queen." Felicity snapped at the billionaire beside her._

_Oliver had come to her with yet another computer problem, and it was proving to be an exceptional pain. For a brief while, Felicity had thought that he was intentionally breaking and or spilling things on his computer just to have an excuse to visit her. Thought his latest problem was proving to be a serious issue._

_According to Oliver, he had been taking a brief break from his work to check a few emails and the whole laptop had just died. As much as it may be a genuine problem, if Felicity had done her math right, and she always did, this was the third laptop Oliver had completely fried in less than a year. She really hated the whole 'more money than sense' thing._

_Other than that, Oliver seemed to be a genuinely nice guy, if a little…eccentric. It was an unlikely friendship, and practically everyone Felicity knew was convinced that Oliver was just stringing her along for her IT skills. While Felicity herself believed that not too long ago, in the 10 months she had known Oliver Queen he had proven himself to be anything but the person the tabloids said he was._

_Most of the time that was._

_He flirted with her endlessly, though Felicity did, on occasion, flirt back. It was fun, he was fun. When Oliver wasn't trying to maintain his reputation as a party boy, despite Felicity knowing that wasn't' all he was, he and Felicity got on pretty well. She had even attended a party as his plus one, though that night ended pretty badly for the both of them._

_Pulling herself from those thoughts, Felicity set back to work attempting to restore Oliver's laptop. After a few more minutes of sorting through the laptop's most recent data, she found the source of the problem, a smile creeping over her face when she did._

" _What's that smile for?" Oliver asked apprehensively._

_Holding back a laugh Felicity asked. "You said you were checking your emails when the laptop crashed?"_

" _Yeah."_

" _Well, in the future you might wanna tell Tommy to be more a little more careful when he's sending you links to porn sites." Felicity couldn't hold in her smile as she spoke._

" _You gotta be fucking kidding me." Oliver spoke quickly, grabbing the laptop to look at the email._

_The way Oliver turned bright red at that practically warmed her heart. In all the time she had known him Felicity had never seen Oliver embarrassed before, the billionaire-to-be looked mortified. Given his reaction Felicity guessed that having his friends send him…questionable links…wasn't a common occurrence. With everything she had heard about Tommy Merlyn, she wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing was intended to be a joke._

_With a laugh, Felicity swatted Oliver's hands away from the laptop and plugged it back into her computer. It didn't take her two minutes to locate the virus that had come with the link and clean it from the system. Fingers moving swiftly across the keyboard, Felicity transferred a stack of anti-virus software into Oliver's laptop, wanting to avoid a repeat of that particular incident. Both for his sake as well as hers. While she had worked, Felicity was almost sure she'd heard Oliver mutter something along the lines of 'I'm going to kill him' under his breath, which only made her grin even more._

" _There." Felicity began, a smile still bright on her lips. "All cleaned up, and I've put some software on there to stop this happening again."_

_Handing the laptop back to him, Felicity watched the blush fade from his cheeks. Oliver took the device cautiously, as if he were afraid that it would break again simply by being in his hands._

" _You're sure?" Oliver asked._

_Felicity didn't dignify that question with an answer, simply raising an eyebrow in a mocking fashion. After everything she had managed to do for Oliver over the last 10 months, she almost felt insulted that he would doubt her abilities._

_With a smile, Oliver stood to his feet. "Felicity Smoak, you are remarkable."_

_**Present Day** _

"Shut up, Oliver." Felicity blushed.

She couldn't miss the smile that came across his face at that. Oliver had always been able to turn her into a 16-year-old girl when he complimented her, mostly because even after everything a small part of her didn't believe him, and Oliver had always enjoyed getting that reaction out of her. If she was being totally honest, Felicity enjoyed it too.

Offering her a warm smile, Oliver reached across and grabbed his jacket from the table, quickly shrugging it on before turning to Felicity.

"Are we going somewhere?"

"You said you wanted to go Christmas shopping." Oliver stated as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Let's go Christmas shopping."

Before Felicity quite had the chance to register everything, Oliver had grabbed her hand and was leading her out of the Foundry.

_XXX_

Oliver let out an all-too loud grunt of defeat as he collapsed back in his chair, dragging his fingers through his hair as he did. For almost two hours he and Tommy had been sat, in what was to become the manager's office of Verdant, working on and planning a million different elements for the club. They'd managed to get through issues ranging from liquor suppliers to bodyguards, entry fees to what style of leather the chairs in the V.I.P lounge would be made from. Now, they were trying to agree on a demo-cocktail menu and Oliver was losing the ability to focus.

Despite that, Oliver had to admit that the entire process of putting together the club had been significantly aided by Tommy's assistance. The two were much further ahead of schedule than Oliver had thought he would be if he had gone it alone. Not only was Tommy's advice proving invaluable, but he could always make the various appointments and meetings Oliver had been unable to because of his  _night job_. Naturally, Tommy never accepted Oliver excuses for his absences and was convinced that Oliver was with Felicity instead. It still made the archer cringe a little as he remembered Tommy's comment:

" _Dude, if you wanna bail to enjoy a little sexy time with Felicity I'm not judging you. Hell, I'd be doing the same thing with Laurel if I could trust you to turn up to these meetings."_

Yeah, he wasn't getting over that one anytime soon. At the very least it meant that he didn't have to explain himself to Tommy.

"So, how was your Christmas?" Tommy questioned, clearly sensing that the they both needed a break from work.

Christmas with the Queen family.

The day hadn't gone quite as badly as Oliver had anticipated, save for Thea's comments about his behaviour. Oliver had done his best to act 'normal' around his mother and Walter despite everything that had happened, it clearly hadn't been as convincing as he had hoped. Thankfully, the things Thea had said hadn't affected the mood too much, the rest of the day went off without a hitch.

It had almost felt ordinary, even Thea had admitted that she had enjoyed herself. Then he had been confronted by Moira about his behaviour, after dinner and away from the rest of the Queen family, which had bene more than a little awkward. Oliver had attempted to put his odd behaviour down to it being his first Christmas back in Starling, though his mother hadn't seemed to be entirely convinced by that notion.

Regardless, she had accepted his excuse, at least for the time being.

By an incredible saving grace, he and Felicity had manged to escape the Queen Mansion at the striking early time of 11pm, and the couple had wasted no time in heading back to their penthouse. They had both been in desperate need of a stiff drink and some time alone by then. He had even managed to skilfully dodge Felicity's attempts at bringing up the issue surrounding his mother.

"Pretty good actually. For my first Christmas in five years, things were nowhere near as bad as we'd expected." Oliver admitted with a grin. "How was Christmas with the Lance family?"

Looking across to his best friend, it was extremely plain to Oliver that Tommy's Christmas had been a far sight better than his, the dreamy smile on the man's face was evidence enough of that. Tommy had despised spending Christmas with his father for almost as long as Oliver could remember, his own memories of what Rebecca Merlyn was like had long since faded. For much of their childhood, and a significant amount of their teenage years, Tommy had spent Christmas with the Queen family, not that any of them had objected to that.

That made it all the more evident that Tommy's first Christmas his girlfriend had been above and beyond his expectations, Oliver couldn't' recall a time when Tommy had considered his Christmases with such nostalgia.

"So much better than I'd hoped." Tommy began with a grin. "Detective Lance managed to get a respectable amount of threats in, but what's new?"

Oliver had to marvel a little at how casually Tommy seemed to be shrugging of the threats of the Lance family patriarch. In their teenage years, the man had manged to scare the duo away from Laurel on numerous occasions, and if it wasn't for everything that had happened on the island Oliver was sure that he would still harbour a little fear towards the man. So, it surprised him to see just how nonchalant Tommy was about the whole situation, it really did say a lot about how he felt toward Laurel.

"So, I've been thinking." Tommy spoke, his smile seemingly growing wider.

"Well that's never a good sign." Oliver smirked at his friend, enjoying how simple things could be when he was around Tommy.

Tommy's brow crinkled a little at Oliver's comment but the amusement in his eyes was all too evident.

"You wound me, Ollie," The Merlyn heir grinned. "I'm thinking we should throw a New Year's party here…"

"There's no way the club will be ready by then." Oliver cut over him, but seeing the grin on Tommy's face he continued, "Will it?"

"Assuming the contractors don't screw up again?" Tommy chuckled a little. "We should be up and running to throw the greatest New Year's party in the city."

Oliver couldn't help the surge of pride that flooded through him when he heard that news, the club was  _way_ further ahead of schedule than he had realised and he couldn't have been happier about it. The club was something Oliver was already incredibly proud of, he and Tommy had put it together from scratch themselves, without having to rely too heavily on either of their parents. To know that it would soon be a complete reality was something else entirely.

"Hold on," Oliver began, a memory forcing its way to the front of his mind. "Do you not remember what happened the last time we threw a New Year's party?"

"Yeah, it was bitchin'." Tommy smirked.

That wasn't quite how Oliver remembered it. Of course, at the time the party had been amazing, his 20-year-old self had loved it. In retrospect, things hadn't been quite so amazing. They'd blown nearly three-thousand dollars on alcohol for their seemingly endless guest list, smashed some antique vase Tommy's dad had on display and then Quentin Lance had shown up with the SCPD to shut them down after learning that Laurel and Sara were in attendance.

"Alright, Tommy, let's throw a New Year's party."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, we've followed pretty much right on from the end of Chapter 14 and through until just before New Years, hence the pretty fair time jumps.
> 
> The reason for me changing all the actual plot from the show around is because in the canon Oliver gets his sense of self back as the Hood back largely because of Laurel, and due to the character dynamics in this story I didn't want that to be the reason. I want to take a step back for a while to look at Oliver and his relationships with the people around him without the 'Hood' a little more than the show did, so expect one or two more chapters before he suits up again.


End file.
